Mitt Romney, John McCain Both Predicting Wins in Granite State
Mitt Romney and his wife Ann greet voters at a polling station in Derry, N.H., Tuesday. (AP Photo)
Mitt Romney enthusiastically predicted a win in the GOP New Hampshire primary Tuesday, looking to beat expectations and polls that have shown rival John McCain edging out Romney in the Granite State.
Having downplayed expectations by discussing second place the day before, on Tuesday Romney was talking about a win and promising to soldier on regardless of the outcome.
“I’m planning on winning today, no guarantees , but I’m planning on winning and I can be pretty sure that by the end of today I will have received more votes for president than any other Republican,” Romney said in Salem.
McCain, too, had predicted a win 24 hours earlier. He was cautious on primary day, but projected a similar message of persistence … win, lose or draw.
“It’s very important we all know … how important New Hampshire is to our campaign and there’s no sugar coating that,” the Arizona senator said. “It’s absolutely important … Absolutely we are continuing on and we anticipate to win.”
Voting Tuesday was predicted to achieve record turnout as warm weather and high interest swirled together to create energized polling sites.
The former Massachusetts governor made his last stop of the day in Derry with his wife Ann at a middle school, delivering an optimistic message.
Romney spoke about a broken Washington and the need to elect fresh faces, and even predicted the possibility of three different winners in the first three states to select delegates for the presidential conventions next summer. Mike Huckabee won Iowa last Thursday, Romney won Wyoming on Saturday. He left open the possibility that McCain could take New Hampshire and he would place second.
“I think it’s probably going to come down to two people,” he said. “I believe I’m going to be one of the two. We’ll see who the other person is. And we’re going to be battling for quite awhile.”
Following his win in the tiny, early-voting town of Dixville Notch, N.H., just after midnight on Tuesday McCain offered his usual dry humor to make a prediction.
“We’re optimistic about the outcome today, and after a landslide victory in Dixville Notch last night, 4-2, there’s no way that we can stop this momentum,” he said.
Dixville Notch had just 17 voters, and McCain won with four of them. On the Democratic side, Barack Obama won with 7 votes.
Candidates began to wrap up their New Hampshire polling place visits Tuesday afternoon, with most polls closing around 7 p.m. ET, and all finishing by 8 p.m.
Pre-election polls shows Obama continuing to lead in New Hampshire among the Democratic candidates. Rival Hillary Clinton powered through her campaign stops Tuesday with a sense of urgency, seeking to recover her one-time frontrunner status.
She earlier pledged a daylong blitz to get her supporters out to the polls, even as the campaign played down expectations for her finish in New Hampshire. Senior Clinton advisers told FOX News that a shake-up could be on the horizon, and that former Bill Clinton advisers James Carville and Paul Begala may be brought on to assist the campaign as early as Wednesday. Begala and Carville deny this.
The New York senator hit her final polling spot of the day at a school in Concord. There she met with throngs of elementary school kids and even supporters of GOP candidate Ron Paul, whose “End the war!” and “Ron Paul!” chants seemed to drown out those attempting to shout for “Hillary!”
Clinton was expected to end the day at her hotel in Concord, where she was to stay until an evening speech in Manchester.
With polls looking up for Obama, the Illinois senator at a stop in Manchester refused to relinquish the underdog spirit that has defined his campaign.
“My name is Barack Obama. I am never a frontrunner,” he said. “I am always the underdog.”
Meanwhile, supporters chanted John Edwards’ name as he left a polling site in Manchester. He placed second in Iowa.
“I feel great. I feel good,” the former North Carolina said, hoping Clinton would be sufficiently weakened Tuesday to give him an opening.
After a win in Iowa, Huckabee too was hoping for a strong finish in New Hampshire. In Bedford, he tried to sell his outsider image to voters.
“People are so disgusted and frustrated with Washington as it is and I don’t think someone in Washington will be able to get the job done,” he said. ”And I think someone who has a lot of years of practical experience of making government work but also bringing fresh integral change is important.”
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani also made a swing through Manchester, but has already said he’s banking on the bevy of states voting Feb. 5 to carry his candidacy. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson has already conceded a New Hampshire loss publicly and spent the day Tuesday in South Carolina.
With the temperature in Manchester at 60 degrees, the rare thaw has voters teeming at the polls. New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner predicted turnout at about a half-million, with 260,000 for Democrats and 240,000 for Republicans. That total would be 100,000 more than the all-time primary record.
Gardner had said he was worried that some areas will run out of ballots, even though no polling place did. Vans carrying extra ballots had been dispatched to select areas that could have run low, just as a precaution, but new ballots were not being printed.
As the 2008 presidential field stormed the state, feeding their staffs and pumping up their supporters with caffeinated beverages along the way, only a few unrevealing results had trickled in, namely that of the small northern town of Dixville Notch.
And survey results are showing that the Democratic vote might be slightly less predictable than the Republican one, according to the latest FOX News/Opinion Dynamics poll: 55 percent of independents plan to vote Democratic, and 45 percent said they’ll likely vote for a Republican. In New Hampshire, independents can choose to vote in either primary.
Which way are the winds blowing? On the Democratic side, it looked like the independents were breaking for Obama. In the Jan. 4-6 poll of 500 likely GOP voters, 500 likely Democratic voters with a 3 percent margin of error, 35 percent of independents likely to vote Democratic said they favored Obama, while 26 percent said they planned to vote for Clinton.
Click here to see the full FOX News/Opinion Dynamics poll.
Edwards took 18 percent of the likely independent voters, but the outcome is by no means assured. There are another 10 percent of declared independent voters who said that while they planned to vote for a Democrat, they weren’t yet sure for whom.
On the Republican side, the FOX News poll shows a strong tilt toward McCain — who carried the state in 2000 — with 34 percent independent support, followed next by Romney, with 22 percent. The GOP Iowa caucus winner, Huckabee, comes in third at 14 percent.
But another possible monkey wrench for the Republicans is that 12 percent of independents said they remained undecided.
FOX News’ Carl Cameron, Serafin Gomez, Cristina Corbin, Bonney Kapp, Aaron Bruns, Shushannah Walshe and Malini Bawa and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Mitt Romney has won over my vote and will receive it in February and is the only true GOP candidate that could back up his words in multiple aspects. Others just run around the subject because they cannot and will not admit to their decision of the past. As for Obama, yes, all of his great inspirational speeches are turning out the young vote but that shows how ignorant our young folks are because after hundreds of speeches and professing his new world, he still has not said anything or have done anything in his life other than convince folks to come to his side by the dribble that flows from his mouth. Tell me what have you accomplished, what leadership traits you posses, what great business sense you have and maybe all of this lip flapping would stand for something. The only candidate that encompasses every aspect from family values, business sense, and standing strong against illegal immigrants and is a true outsider that does not need or rely on any of these lobbyists financial persuasion is Romney. He is the only one who will prove that Obama’s speeches are just empty words and after going one on one with Romney, the facts will stand out and those young folks will see that he cannot lead this country out of the situations that it is currently. If everyone cares about Family, Income, Medicare, and their career prospects within the U.S. I would recommend looking beyond the hip and empty words and gather the facts before casting a vote for their future, our future.
Vote for Romney because he’s the only one who can beat Obama??? Come on Romney-backers, what ever happened to pride and faith in GOP values? Let’s vote on substance, not appearances, and be confident that America will elect a Republican president because its values are more aligned with him. Stop promoting this senseless propaganda.
Happy New Years everyone.
No vote for McCain. His Pro-Amnesty vote/stance is sickening. I live in Central California and see the effects of the illegal immigrants and their gang member/juvenile delinquent anchor babies.
Stranglehold on healthcare, overworking our Police Departments. Uninsured/licensed motorists. The meth being shipped into our country from Mexico. Lowering the quality of life/safety in our schools, appearance of our neighborhoods and cities alike.
There’s talk of “Free Health Care for Californians”. There already is. The only difference being “I” pay for it. Just ask any pregnant illegal alien. Though bring an interpreter.
Karen, #54.
Which religion in America hasn’t been involved in policies which appeared or flat out were prejudiced against African Americans at one time or another? Perhaps some are not guilty of this, but most, even to include the most “evangelical” groups a.k.a. Southern Baptists, etc. were involved in this type of prejudice (separate seating, etc.) and in some cases very heavily. It is a sad cloak that covered all of America to some degree. Not right to try to use association of a past organizations behaviors to mislabel someone in the present… at least not in my book.
Karen, were you aware that the “Mormon” church, though it did have a policy restricting the priesthood from those of African descent (though not restricting membership) until 1978, was also always openly anti-slavery, one of the primary reasons that in 1838, Governor Boggs of Missouri signed into law the infamous “Extermination Order,” legalizing the shooting on site of anyone that was “Mormon” a growing anti-slavery constituency in his pro-slavery state? This order was not rescinded until 1976. Hmmmm …. and you were talking about Prejudice?
Thousands of “Mormons” in the 1800’s died as the result of this form of bigotry, close-mindedness and intolerance. Perhaps you haven’t heard much about this though as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints doesn’t go around advertising and complaining about past wrongs that have been committed to its members (including against those of African heritage) but instead is busy “turning the other cheek.”
Your un-Christian attempts to mislabel another individual aren’t fooling anybody. Perhaps instead of throwing stones, you should examine your own religous past to see if it is truly “without sin” as someone far wiser than either of us once stated.
change.
Hey Independent Thinker, McCain has convictions - but most of them are wrong. But try to disagree and he becomes unhinged and tries to shove them down your throat or tell you how much smarter he is than you. Oh and he reminds you that he spent 5 eyars as a POW.
And Melissa Iglesias, you are right. McCain doesn’t tell people what they want to hear. The problem is that if people disagree with him he drops the F-bomb (like he did to Cornyn on the Sentate floor) or he goes ballistic and almost has a stroke.
No thank you. We can do without this arrogant, mean, egomaniacal relic of the past that cannot control his temper unless he’s medicated. He needs to go away. Far away. Back to Arizona and out of public life for good.
floyd,
you have obviously not been paying any attention. or doing any research!
i wish clinton wins so she could be the 1st president of women
Mitt is by far the best candidate! I hope the voters of NH will help him pull out a win!! The other candidates are wimps! If they can’t even handle someone questioning their record, how in the world can they compete w/ Obama or Clinton??? GOOOO MITT!!! Can’t wait for you to come to SC!
Mitt Romney has the right ideas for our country strong national defense, securing our borders and lowering taxes. He is the only candidate with besides Thompson who is supporting those issues. Romeny can win Thompsan can’t. I support Romney for that reason.