Today's dumb headline: "A Win in New Hampshire Would Make McCain the Clear Frontrunner"

[Lobster Martini]

That's from Rasmussen Reports.

So, Huckleberry won the Iowa caucus, Mittens won the Wyoming caucus, but if McCain wins one primary, he's the clear front runner? Huh? Four electoral votes out of a total of 538 and McCain’s the clear front runner?

He hasn’t won anything yet, and it wasn’t that long ago that his staff jumped ship and he was running out of money.

He won New Hampshire in 2000 and—well, he won New Hampshire in 2000. Nothing more to be said. But if he wins the same state in 2008, he’s the clear front runner.

And it isn’t just Rasmussen Reports handing McCain the Pope hat. What is going on?

In order to get this kind of coverage, McCain must be sending out floozies and cheap liquor rather than press releases. Either that, or everybody in the media is just plain stupid.

[veniceboy]

1. It's by default-

If Romney cannot get it done in Iowa and NH he definitely will not get it done in the anti-mormon south. Rudy should presumably be showing better in these two northern states. I definitely wouldn't count out Huckabee (or even Rudy, yet) but Romney is all but done. America doesn't like robotic candidates.

[MorningGlow]

2. You know what's really sad?

That McCain is the "best" the Repukes have got, so they're throwing all their weight behind him, as reflected in the dictated stories to the MSM, which is, yes, just plain stupid.

[Lobster Martini]

4. Even worse...

For a brief moment, "Fred Van Winkle" Thompson's candidacy was eagerly anticipated. Now that's sad.

[MorningGlow]

5. Ah, that was Reagan lite

"He's a Republican! He's an actor! He's fatherly! He's Reagan reincarnated!"

Talk about superficial. How stupid do they think people are? Oh...wait...:eyes:

[gasperc]

3. boy are they desperate to KILL Huckabee

I wonder if "they" will resort to putting a bullet in Huckabee's head in order to stop him

[Renew Deal]

6. I want to go state by state to guess who's going to win.

And see where we end up in the end. If McCain wins NH, you will have 3 winners in 3 races and a very divided party.

[lisainmilo]

7. Repubs in my area support McCain

[mohc]

8. This makes no sense

If anything, a McCain win means there is NO clear frontrunner. At this point, barring a collapse, Huckabee should do rather well in the Republican's power base: the South. The real question as I see it now is if Rudy can perform well in some of the larger states, otherwise I think Huckabee will be able to build a coalition of support from the South, Midwest, and smaller showings in other states to get to the needed delegate count. If Romney does not crash, he should still do well out west in places like Idaho, Utah, and Nevada. McCain might be able to survive on a New Hampshire win to win some Southwest states. Quite frankly, I think the most likely scenario for the Republicans as of now is a brokered convention, in which case lazy man Thompson still has his shot.

[Tesha]

9. There's a lot to be said for this analysis.

There's a lot to be said for this analysis:

1. If Romney loses in NH too, it shows he has no traction
among either Fundie Repubs or Economic Repubs. Is there
another sub-species of Repub out there? Well, maybe
slick-haired Mormon Utah Repubs.

2. If McCain wins in NH, it's clear that he's the favorite
of the Economic Repubs. Huckabee is already established as
the candidate of the Fundie Repubs.

It then becomes a question of which faction within the
Republican Party has more weight to throw around. McCain
will lose to Huck in SC, but that's just a result of Fundie
nutters still believing in McCain's black love child,
courtesy GWB in 2000. If Ecomonic Repubs reassert their
control over their party, McCain could win this thing.

Tesha