Because we all know how representative New Hampshire is of the rest of the country?
These early primaries really don't mean a lot. The media hypes them for the sake of ratings, and there are some things that can be learned from them, but doing bad in a couple early primaries that account for relatively few delegates doesn't mean a candidate isn't viable.
If a candidate can't find a solid base of support from somewhere they are in trouble, so Thompson does need to do reasonably well in South Carolina, but he doesn't need to do well in New Hampshire, and never really expected that he would.
“These early primaries really don’t mean a lot. The media hypes them for the sake of ratings, and there are some things that can be learned from them, but doing bad in a couple early primaries that account for relatively few delegates doesn’t mean a candidate isn’t viable.”
I keep reading here that the early primaries don’t matter. If they didn’t matter, nobody would contest them. They matter because of the momentum to be gained or lost, and the fund raising opportunities that go with winning. Rudy decided to skip the early contests and try to get all his delegates after Fl. Fred seemed to be taking that same strategy, but then with 3 weeks left before Iowa, decided to contest it. His 3rd place finish in a virtual tie with McCain, while certainly not the kiss of death, isn’t really much of a victory either. It gets Fred a ticket to the next couple of primaries, but he has to win SC. A 3rd place finish in SC won’t get it done.
You should be writing speeches for Hillary Clinton.