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Subscribe to RSSMitt Romney's decisive win in New Hampshire makes him the first non-incumbent Republican to win both the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucuses since Iowa began kicking off the party's nominating process in 1976. TODAY's Savannah Guthrie reports.
Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night with a broad-based coalition of both conservative and moderate voters overwhelmingly motivated by their worries about America’s economic future and wanting above all to beat President Barack Obama in November.
According to exit poll data, more than a third of voters on Tuesday said the quality that mattered most in deciding their vote was the candidate’s ability to defeat Obama. Romney won an overwhelming 62 percent of those voters.
Regardless of how they voted, 56 percent of Tuesday’s voters thought Romney would be most likely to beat Obama in November; the runner-up in that category was Rep. Ron Paul of Texas with only 15 percent and only 11 percent saw former ambassador to China Jon Huntsman as most likely to defeat Obama.
Even though Tuesday was a Republican primary, independents could request Republican ballots and vote in the primary.
Remarkably, self-described independents accounted for nearly half of all voters Tuesday – a piece of data which has implications for November. Paul won 32 percent of independents, with Romney getting 29 percent, and Huntsman picking up 23 percent of them.
In his 2000 battle with Al Gore, George W. Bush won New Hampshire by 7,211 votes out of a total of nearly 570,000 votes. If Romney is the GOP nominee that would make New Hampshire competitive this fall. Having an appeal to independents would be crucial to his hopes of carrying the state and its four electoral votes.
Recommended: NBC News: Romney wins N.H. primary, Paul second
Among self-described Republicans Romney won a solid 49 percent of them, according to exit poll interviews. The closet contenders with appeal to Republicans were Paul with 16 percent and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum with 13 percent.
Huntsman invested heavily in New Hampshire and will likely finish a distant third once all the votes are counted.
Given this, is he the alternative for moderate Republicans? Maybe not: Romney bested Huntsman among self-described moderates, 39 percent to 26 percent.
And based on the New Hampshire exit poll, to whom might anti-Romney conservatives turn? Romney won 42 percent of conservatives Tuesday with Paul finishing second among that segment of voters with 19 percent. Santorum got 15 percent of conservatives.
Emmanuel Dunand / AFP - Getty Images
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney addresses supporters in Manchester on January 10, 2012 after seizing a second victory in his fight to be the party's presidential nominee, winning New Hampshire's key primary.
Romney performed best among the highly educated (winning 42 percent of college graduates), among upper income voters, and among older voters.
He did less well among lower income people– winning 31 percent of those earning less than $30,000 a year. Paul did best among that group winning 36 percent of them.
While nearly seven out of ten exit poll interviewees said they were “very worried” about the direction of the nation’s economy in the next few years, only 16 percent said their own family was falling behind financially. Of that “falling behind” group, Romney ran first, winning 32 percent of them to Paul’s 29 percent.
Paul dominated among voters aged 18 to 29, winning 47 percent of them but they accounted for only 12 percent of the electorate, according to exit poll interviews.
Gingrich’s lackluster performance did not seem to bode well for the South Carolina contest – he could not break above 20 percent for any of the age, income, ideological or demographic groups that were identified in the exit poll sample.
Likewise Santorum -- who did very well only among the roughly one-fifth of the electorate who called themselves “very conservative.” Santorum won 26 percent of such voters – but Romney won 33 percent of them.
One surprising finding: Santorum, a Catholic, won only about 8 percent of self-identified Catholic voters, a serious underperformance on his part since Catholics accounted for more a third of the electorate Tuesday. Gingrich, also a Catholic, won 10 percent of Catholic voters, according to exit poll interviews.
Romney, a Mormon, dominated among Catholics winning 45 percent of them.
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The whole premise of the article is faulty. It assumes Republican primary goers in New Hampshire reflect the views of Republicans nationally. This is just one of fifty states, a small one, that leans to the left. While it may weed out one or 2 Republican presidential contenders, it has little implication for who will ultimately win the nomination and almost no implication for November. If Romney gets smoked in South Carolina, New Hampshire will be meaningless.
well old fatso want to be willard vp. if he win they better call people to reinforced the bed. Now that what i call job creation. as it will at least take them a month to do it right
I'd like to google-translate what you just said.... what language should I use, please?
Libish ? Libese ? Librian ? :)
Don't you love polls? How better to manipulate, obfuscate, agitate and discombobulate than to use statistics to correlate inane results with complex human thought and behavior. The data sure make you think. Oh, that's right, most Americans don't think - why should we when pollsters, pols and book-selling talking heads do it all for us?
Closet contenders? That's a new one.
This is not a true test of the Republican voters since anyone Republican or not could vote. Don't you think the Democrats were n here voting bug time for Romney. They want the most beatable candidate to be the nominee for the Republican Party and they are going to get him. The Republicans have effectively beat out the conservatives and the Party is crumbling because of it. December of 2012 wil see the birth of a new party. don'tknow the name yet but it wil be conservatives and not hte Tea Party either.
Spend enough money, and repeat something enough times, and people will believe practically anything.
This is Romney to a "T": [quote from the movie, Flightplan] "People will believe what I tell them to believe. That's how authority works!"
Romney thinks his super pac money and negative campaign ADS will buy him the 2012 election. He'll have plenty of opportunity to get reacquainted with the private sector again, soon! Romney has no authority whatsoever. I think the Citizens United ruling is going to bite the ReThuglicans in the butt come 2012.
MacNFries,
That's not Romney you're talking about, it's Obuma!!! Read your first sentence. Your Pied Piper has lost his followers!!!
Jer, I think Mac is talking about Mittens. That is, when he was for healthcare, not now that he's against it.
Romney has gotten better, thanks to his 8 years experience, in running for President. All his flip-flopping, refusal to show his tax statements, hiding what he'd done as Governor, and the fact he still can't relate to the middle class...will still play well with the 'I hate Obama' group, though....until November.
If Romney finishes in the thirties in NH, it is the equivalent of break even. Over forty percent could have been called a win, under thirty would have been a loss, even if he came in first. So far, Romney is breaking even in his primary chase. The GOP looks pretty well split. If Romney gets the nomination, and Paul keeps doing well, they might have to give Paul the VP nod, so as not to lose his suppoerters. If not Paul might go third party. Trump and Johnson (NM) are already threatening to. Interesting, no?
It seems destiny is for Mitt Rommey for
now. It looks as if there is a perception that Mitt Rommey is a one but in
actual fact, Obama is the chosen One. President Obama is destined to be
reelected for new beginnings, for a new term until 2016.
I don't like any of the choices this year. The reality is if congress doesn't support whoever becomes president we will be screwed yet again. It's not about who sits in the oval office and never will be. That does not mean I like/dislike our current president, it means I dislike our congress and the way they have behaved over the last decade or so that I can remember.
Undesireable ... did you know the opposite of the word PROgress is CONgress? LOL One thing really, really needs to happen in the next four years ... the 2010 Citizens United ruling needs to be overturn, or we'll go through this very crap in the mid-term elections and the 2016 Presidential election. Romney has proven that spending BIG bucks on negative campaign ads works, and the Superpacs & people like Koch Bros are redirecting the power of government to their own interests. Voters need to reclaim control of their government.
You Americans do have the opportunity to take your country in right direction, with Ron Paul passing that up will be the same old think even worst. To be ready for that start to practice how to use chopsticks otherwise China wont feed you. By voting for Ron Poul, in time you may be able to have a $ 400.00 hair cut to, like your Romney.
Self described Independents? Nonsense. Either they are Republicans or Democrats trying to elect someone Obama can beat. The coverage of this stuff is stupid. Of course most Repulicans want to defeat Obama, but no Democrat would want Romney over Obama. He might fire them.
well the suprene,did it to the american people. the super pact could be getting foreing money from saudi arabia, iran, iraq, afganastain, germany, or any other country, as they do not have to tell. What msnbc did when ask on the debate, they never asked willard how he knew about what was said on tv about newt, he said he saw it on the wash post. (not true) 4 pinocle for willard for lying. but newt never defended hinself. you know the pact told him everything. the same way newt knows about the filn that is coming out. thank you to the suprene court for letting not tell. that goes to alito. robert,thomas,scalia, for that.a term linit for congress and the suprene court would be nice.
LMAO...so far this has been a complete clown show of candidates. Obama is going to run roughshod over anyone who gets the GOP nod. Cant wait til November. Republicans really think the rest of us are dumb stupid and blind. The GOP caused this mess and they are doing thier best to blame it on a guy whos only been president for 3 years.. Meanwhile they sat idle as the then Pres. Bush ran up record deficits, created two unwarranted wars, and let Wall Street screw us. Now they claim to be the party of fix it..YEAH RIGHT....OBAMA 2012. This race was over before it got started. Even if I was republican I wouldnt vote for these clowns the GOP has on the stage/
I hate the GOP debates, but lately its been very entertaining to watch them stumble, lie, and just attack one another..
Agreed. I have found them to be quite entertaining. Bachmann, Perry, and Newtered have just been a barrel of laughs. what a sad sad bunch, and all they did was TAKE money from their ignorant supporters. There ought to be a law. They never had a chance in hell. Crazy Bachmann, Fairy Perry, and Philandering Newter. Seriously, 1% for Perry, and 0% for Bachmann, at least someone had the sense to pull her azz out of the race last week. What a joke.
There will be no viable GOP candidate come November. They will have been savaged so completely by their own that Obama will breeze to a victory.
This is true ... but don't pop that balloon for the true believers ... known as *Intellectual Property / Campaign Rights* .. everything the candidates have said to rip Willard a new one, will be used by the Dems ... especially coming from the Nootster, who knows now he will not be the nominee and from here on out, will proceed to pound Willard with all the vile-hate he can muster as collateral damage ...
... almost comical that he's now working for the Dems ...
i wonder if they show up in at the debates all in one old car and pile out like clowns at a circus.(lmao)
Hey! Looks like Bachmann has a chance to take Perry! It's neck and neck!
And do you believe the economy is improving?
^ Yes. And it will continue to do so, with 3 million private sector jobs added over the past 20 months.
Exactly. You forgot to point out the job losses in the public sector. You know, the unemployment caused by cutting spending.
Who cares about the guy's religion. The truth is that Obama lacks any kind of leadership skills. The unemployment in this country is terrible. Romney is a good decent person who knows how to run a business. He will put this country back in shape. Obama is nothing more than a hack politician from Chicago.
He worked for a private equity firm! How is that knowing how to run a business??
Obama took the reins at the outset of the worst recession since the great depression! Do you realize how long it took to come out of the Great Depression?? I'll give you a hint: it was significantly greater than four years.
Obama has been slandered by Republican lies. I'm tired of it.
Others have said it, so I'll say it again! It's the economy stupid! The TEA party squandered a golden opportunity post their smashing win in 2010. Rather they passed numerous anti-abortion laws nationwide. Now there three segments fighting each other. It has been very entertaining since they started dancing. And Judson Phillips boldly declared, “The Tea Party will never rally behind Mitt Romney.” The "Anyone but Romney" crowd have help splinter the once proud party of Lincoln. Then there is the GOP, the party of Teddy Roosevelt, which was once progressive to the point of "Trust Busting" and increased regulation of business. Now this portion has squandered their opportunity to effect great legislation. Then there is the Republican section, once proud Reagan-ites whom have been seriously compromised by the other radical divisions and therefore failed to produce any jobs legislation they ran on in the 2010 election. Once proud, now split and leader-less they wander the Iowan countryside seeking solace from those just as split. It has been one very entertaining primary season.
if the Republican party does not get it's act together and stop supporting these Rockefeller liberal candidates, they will go the way of the Whigs and be replaced by a new party.
My question is when is Rick Perry going to drop out ???
Also Romney's record and his recent quote saying "I love to fire people"
is really really going to haunt him.
Obama and the DNC are going to milk that for all it's worth !!!
This election comes down to this
A vote for Romney is a vote for the Upper Class and Wall Street.
A vote for Obama is a vote for the Middle Class and Main Street.
Gee - I wonder who I'm going to vote for ???
Rick Perry?
LOL. Just kidding. I just want Perry to go away completely. I don't want him back in Texas.
I bet Perry is crapping his pants and Anita Perry is non-stop blubbering. LMAO
Texas Liberal, Really? "Texas Liberal"??? (That must be a rough gig for ya down in the Lone Star State! lol) First, if you watched the whole video clip--which obviously you haven't---Romney was talking about the "right to fire your insurance company if they cut out benefits while continually raising their premiums"...(i.e. what's ugly about Obamacare). Wouldn't you like to fire your insurance company for bilking you like that?...thought so. Secondly, that "class warfare" rhetoric is soooo old and tired. If you truly believe that Obama cares about the middle class , then you're just another sad example of how he got into the White House in the first place. Partner, the best thing you can do for the ignorant masses--if you really care---is not be one of them! It's not a coincident that the most intelligent in our society have a strong tendency to be found on the right side of political and social issues---even if they were left-leaning while going through college. Education has a way of doing that!....go figure! As to "who will you vote for in 2012", it's pretty obvious based on the intelligence you've shown so far.
Hey Texson, the bigger cities here in Texas are full of liberals. I live in Dallas. Surely you've heard of the bigger cities in Texas? The places where all the real work gets done?
To this day, how many of us blame the Great Depression on Roosevelt - it will always be Hoover's. He was sitting at the controls, he was asleep at the switch, he believed in fairytale solutions. This will always be Bush's Great Recession no matter how hard you Teapubs try to pin it on Obama. Anyone who looks at the jobs lost-added bar graphs with an objective view can't see it any other way. Bush put us in the crapper! Obama has kept us from being flushed down the tubes - - and we are climbing out - NO THANKS TO THE REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS!
The best President this country can have is already in office fools! after the past 3.5 years of intentional obstruction from republicans, due to who he is and the fact that he is a Democrat, in Nov. most intelligent Americans will vote for Pres. Obamas re-election and continue to see this country come out of the financial mess the right wing, pro greedy business, pro china, anti union, anti middle class and anti worker, business people and republican politicians put us in over the past 40 years.
I have never seen a field of ignorant, un-informed, unable to understand the political process, the rest of the world, or be able to even name countries or leaders, as the nit-wits that are running as repub candidates. Most don't have the ability to run as a dog catcher! President Obama has forgotten more that all of these clowns put together even know!!
The policies of welfare for the rich, give them tax breaks, trickle down, has resulted in more jobs to China, Mexico, South America etc. outsourcing to India, cutting our police depts. teachers and a general erosion of our standard of living and it can be blamed on reagan,nixon and bush economic policy. Wake up fools, President Obama has already saved this country from a depression, saved GM and Chrysler, ended a stupid bush war, finally got health care passed, killed bin laden [george bush didn't!!!!] and is starting to get people back to work! none of these republican fools whom made the problems that we now have, could even come close to President Obamas accomplishments!!! pull your dumb heads out your asses!
Ted, you overdosed on your liberal koolaid tonite. You are hallucinating
Very well said Ted. It took decades to get us into this economic and social disaster. But the spoiled whiners expected President Obama to pull us out in a couple years. And do this while being obstructed by our congress - which by the way in the senate he didn't have the super majority required to get things done.
Obama/Biden 2012
Hey Ted,No mention of the NDAA -national defense authorization act? i suppose to you that is another wonderful Obama doing? Whats next SOPA? do some real research and admit Obama is a Socialist with Fascist tendencies.
Wow, it is so complicated.
Obama was a communist, then a socialist, then Marxist, while being a Muslim that didn't pray to the East or cover his wife's face, a tyrant dictator that ruled from the back seat, while going against his fellow Muslim's jihad and killing his supposed leader, enemy of big business while bailing them out...
...now he's a Fascist too????
Obama is a GOD!
It has to be true! Every die-hard conservative tells me he is.
Ted,
where have you been?? Worst of the worst!! Even Daly agrees. He doesn't want to hang out with losers!!!
@ dagocrazy: Regarding NDAA....You do realize that over 80% of the House Repubs voted FOR IT, and over 90% of the Senate Repubs voted FOR IT....right?
If you really don't like it, if it really scares you that much....you might want to ask your congress person.....WHY they voted for it.
John huntsman > Romney
Can any one out there tell me how he is going to improve the economy. If he has the same problem with congress as Obama has it will get worse. Many top notch Conservative and progressive economists say that if we make deep cuts in current expenditures we will see a lot worse unemployment.
$10 an hour jobs are not going to jump start the economy. The working class needs disposable income to rev up the economic engine.
I simply don't see that happening under Romney, although he is a far better choice than therest. Big banks and Wall Street will love him, but heaven forbid what will happen to the working stiffs and small investors. The robber barons will be let lose again, and pray tell there is no more money to bail them out next time around so all hell will break out.
the economists also agree that you have to spend (invest) wisely in order to create jobs that will set the stage for private-sector jobs to be created. Our infrastructure is crumbling, yet our congress refuses to pass the jobs act that President Obama wants. Invest money to put people to work - who will spend money and pay taxes - thereby putting revenue back in our coffers and other jobs being created.
Romney is so wishy washy it's hard to imagine him winning against Obama. Hopefully the people will vote out the tea party and Democrats can win the house and senate, and we will see how fast this country gets turned around. Romney is so out of touch with the middle class and the struggles of the everyday people. Anybody that thinks Corporations are people, clearly has no idea what it's like to be a struggling middle class citiizen in the U.S. Romney says he will reduce the deficit, less government, and less taxes, I haven't heard how he plans on doing any of this. I hope Ron Paul runs as an independent, taking away some of the Republicans and Obama gets re-elected. If you think the country is going in the wrong direction now, Things will be twice as bad with Romney as President. The rich get richer, and the rest of America will suffer.
here's what our lib friends don't seem to grasp. We CANNOT make any serious pay down of our debt, even with massive tax increases. Only a dramatic reduction in spending including and especially entitlements can do this and Obama and the Dems will never make these necessary changes.
To cover the Congressional Budget Office projection of Mr. Obama's $841 billion deficit in 2016 requires a 31.7% increase in all income tax rates (and that's assuming the Social Security income cap is removed). This raises the top rate to 52.2% and brings the total combined marginal tax rate to 68.8%. Government, in short, would take over two-thirds of any incremental earnings.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304911104576443893352153776.html
In the next few years, our major entitlement programs, in particular Social Security and Medicare, will begin to run cash-flow deficits, adding hundreds of billions each year to the debt. In fact, Social Security’s total unfunded liabilities top $15.8 trillion, and depending on what accounting measure is used, Medicare’s future shortfall could exceed $100 trillion.
In fact, if you completely eliminated all non-defense discretionary spending — everything from the Department of Education to the FBI, from NASA to the Food and Drug Administration — we would still face a budget deficit this year in excess of $500 billion. Throw in the entire defense budget and we barely break even.
Now add Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, and Obama’s 2011 budget has a $1.27 trillion deficit. It’s the entitlements, stupid.
Nor can you tax your way out of debt. Eliminate all of the Bush tax cuts, including the tax cuts for low- and middle-income Americans, and you would reduce the debt by perhaps 10% — assuming you didn’t cripple the economy in the process. Tax the rich? That won’t get you there either. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, in order to pay for all currently scheduled federal spending would require raising both the corporate tax rate and top income tax rate from their current 35% to 88%, the current 25% tax rate for middle-income workers to 63%, and the 10% tax bracket for low-income workers to 25%.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/three_little_pigs_how_entitlements_Ah41sxLQHFRPa5sB0vsB3L#ixzz1j7lIqfPc
You are more than likely right, but if Obama, whom I voted for, gets in we will be in just as much trouble. We need some one to quit spending money, WE ARE BROKE !!! Neither Romney, nor Obama have the answer !!! Republicans want to make the rich , RICHER, and Obama wants to spend us into total ruin. We need someone to cut the budget and only spend the money that is available. Romney doesn't appear to even consider this, and Obama by his actions chooses not do it. So neither sees the big picture !!!!! Two inadequate choices !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!