Who cares about NH?? NH only has 23 delegates that are proportionally awarded so even if Trump wins in a landslide, he will only leave with a few delegates (probably less than in Iowa) due to the crowded GOP candidate field.
I don’t put a lot of stock in New Hampshire. As you say, 23 delegates and it’s not the rural backwater it was 50 years ago. It’s now a mix of Boston ex-urbs and Sanders types.
It’s a single state, what does a win there portend? Zero. They have the tradition of going first as an Australian Ballot primary...but it is not reflective of the broader electorate, and it never was.
We’ll see how the top three out of Iowa fare there. I don’t see it as a make or break place like the mediots do.
To them, it’s the horse race. Anyone who has any experience at the track knows, it’s one thing to be leading out of the gate and into the first turn, it’s a tough slog through the back stretch and Super Tuesday is the back stretch. The following two primaries are turn three and four.
If they’re still battling it out by April, then nobody was as strong as they thought.
We’ll see.
I am much more sanguine because by the time my state has a primary at the end of April, this thing should be pretty much decided, so my preference matters little.