Two Lessons

I come away from the New Hampshire Democratic dust-up with two lessons:

1. Support for the Democratic candidates is thin. In this case, the media gets it right. Democratic voters could basically live with any of the top three candidates. In fact, Democratic candidates could live with a salamander as the candidate as long as it's not Bush or a Republican.

2. You can't count on young voters. Despite the polls having been accurate in predicting Obama's numbers, a surge by young people just didn't occur as it did in Iowa. If Obama wants to win, he needs support of the old foggies like me.

For once, I have to agree with something Karl Rove wrote:

"The dirty secret is it is hard to accurately poll a primary. The unpredictability of who will turn out and what the mix of voters will be makes polling a primary election like reading chicken entrails–ugly, smelly and not very enlightening."

The media is writing an obit for John Edwards. I figure that Edwards is in it for awhile. What's he got to lose? If he doesn't win in South Carolina, then at worst he has some playing cards for the convention. The only reason I can see that he might get out earlier is to torpedo Hillary, if he should choose to do so. Plus, playing a kingmaker role would put him in a great position down the road.