THE POLITICAL WIRE: Clinton Chairman Says Top-Level Advisers On the Way
(6:32 p.m. ET)
Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman told FOX News on Tuesday that the New York senator plans to soon bring in “a lot more top-level advisers,” even as former Bill Clinton advisers Paul Begala and James Carville earlier denied reports that they are on tap.
“We want to bring in as many new people as we can,” Chairman Terry McAuliffe said. “I would love to have James and Paul come in and help this campaign. We’d wanted them from day one … I’d love to have them come in and give us some advice.”
FOX News reported Tuesday that the campaign is due for a significant shake-up after what could be a defeat in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary. Senior Clinton sources told FOX News no one will be fired, but that numerous advisers from Bill Clinton’s White House and campaigns, including Begala and Carville, will take on roles likely to overshadow the input of the current team.
Clinton’s senior strategist, Mark Penn, is expected to remain on the campaign, as is current campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle.
McAuliffe said he has already begun to look past the New Hampshire vote, and the new strategy and staff will be geared toward Feb. 5, when nearly two dozen states vote.
“We have plenty of money, we’ve got millions in the bank … we’re in for the long haul,” McAuliffe said. “I never thought (New Hampshire) was a firewall.”
All the new volunteer Clinton advisers are believed to be committed through the Feb. 5 primaries.
Click here for more information on this story in The Bourbon Room.
– FOX News’ Major Garrett
More Ballots Sent to Some N.H. Districts
(2:17 p.m. ET)
Dispatch from the field:
The weather is extraordinary. Jan 8 is usually about 10-15 degrees.
When NH Secretary of State Bill Gardner earlier projected 500,000 voters he was anticipating temps in the 20s.
500,000 would have been 100,000 more than the all time primary record and yet it seems likely to exceed that.
Here in Hooksett where they have about 5,000 previously registered voters, the moderator tells me that they have already crossed 2,900 and she says that they are seeing a lot of same-day registrants.
The Secretary of State’s office is worried that some areas especially on the more liberal New Hampshire seacoast will run out of ballots
THEY HAVE NOT ACTUALLY RUN OUT OF BALLOTS ANYWHERE (as has been reported elsewhere) but vans have been dispatched to those areas just in case.
They are not printing new ballots. They have reserves. No one has run out and they don’t expect to run out. This is precautionary.
– FOX News’ Carl Cameron
Back to the Future at the Clinton Campaign
(12:56 p.m. ET)
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is looking backward as some of the top advisers to former President Clinton are set to join to Clinton’s faltering campaign as early as Wednesday.
Senior Clinton sources tell FOX News that the New York senator intends to bring in as top day-to-day advisers James Carville and Paul Begala. The campaign could also add other strategists from Clinton’s presidential years, but Carville and Begala are the biggest names so far, and could join the campaign after a post-New Hampshire strategy meeting on Wednesday.
Click here to read Major Garrett’s report.
Thompson Campaigns From Afar
(12:34 p.m. ET)
Apparently unswayed by unseasonably warm weather in the Northeast, GOP presidential hopeful Fred Thompson is spending Tuesday in South Carolina, some 800 miles away from the action in New Hampshire.
Thompson is putting his money on The Palmetto State primary with it’s “First in the South” status. It’s close to his home state of Tennessee. And of New Hampshire’s tendency to predict eventual winners?
“Everybody looks at the current wisdom, you know, Hillary Clinton was inevitable a few days ago. Rudy Giuliani was inevitable a few days ago. John McCain was going to run third in Iowa. He didn’t, of course, I did,” Thompson said, speaking with FOX News by phone.
Thompson bested McCain by a slim margin of 345 caucus votes, taking 13.3 percent of the 118,696 GOP caucus votes cast last Thursday, over McCain’s 13.1 percent.
“So the conventional wisdom about all these things — or what history tells one to conclude — didn’t work out a great deal of the time. Never have these primaries been situated the way they are today.” That, Thompson said, ”allows us to do what we’re doing.”
Nice Weather, Tough Times on Primary Day
(11:53 a.m.)
The polls are open in New Hampshire, and we hear the weather is great (except from S.C. Sen. Lindsay Graham, who shivered on camera today while stumping for Sen. John McCain. “It’s winter here!” he told his home-state constituents.)
According to Weather.com, right now in Concord, N.H., it’s partly cloud; 43 F; feels like 43 F; predicted high 62 F.
Interesting reading …
An A1 Wall Street Journal story this morning continues the sour note for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which is facing increasingly unfavorable polling numbers heading toward poll closing tonight:
“With Barack Obama strongly favored — even within Hillary Clinton’s camp — to win a second straight victory in today’s New Hampshire Democratic primary, both rivals are looking to the next battle grounds. But his momentum threatens to swamp her in the next two states as well and shows signs of fracturing her support in the party establishment.
“Already some Clinton associates have begun lobbying for her early exit if she loses the primary by a big margin, as polls suggest she could. Several Senate colleagues who have sat on the fence are now in talks with Obama advisers about endorsing the freshman Illinois senator over his more experienced colleague.
“Despite raising more than $100 million, Sen. Clinton also faces financial worries as contributions have begun to slacken. But she vows to fight on: Her campaign will pivot to focus more heavily on “Super Tuesday” Feb. 5, when 21 states vote. “We are going all the way to the convention,” Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said.” The rest …
This Washington Post editorial rings a stinging note for Mitt Romney — also sliding in pre-primary New Hampshire polls — on the immigration tune:
“MITT ROMNEY, struggling to revive his floundering candidacy and to stiff-arm a surging Sen. John McCain in New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary, has pushed his plan for dealing with illegal immigration to center stage. Unfortunately, it is no plan at all. That has become clear in recent days, and particularly at the GOP candidates’ debate Saturday, when Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, contradicted himself repeatedly, as well as his own TV advertisements, while stumbling in rhetorical figure-eights around the immigration debate.
“Mounting his attack on Mr. McCain, Mr. Romney has blanketed New Hampshire television stations with ads deriding as “amnesty” the senator’s plan to provide an eventual pathway to legalization for America’s 12 million undocumented immigrants — the same plan he once called “reasonable.” But in the debate Saturday, Mr. Romney twice said the McCain plan is not “technically” amnesty because it would sock undocumented immigrants with a $5,000 penalty if they wanted to remain in the country. He also denied that his own ads describe McCain’s program as an “amnesty,” which in fact they do. He then managed to double back on himself by asserting that “most people” would consider the McCain plan an amnesty.” The rest …
Tell your adviser’s to quit drinking and driving they may kill someone ….. First one of your men are prisioned because of fraud now one with a DUI ,lol my Lord what kind of looney toons are you and your bunch of goon’s ??? lol …Shows us alot ….
FRED THOMPSON 08
THE REAL DEAL ….
Republican DREAM team ???
How about the Republican nominee (whoever that will be) + Condi Rice ???
That’s an awesome combination.
I am a firm believer that the Southern States will determine the niminees and eventually the President. Look out Mr. McCain and Mr. Romney you won’t have that same support down here. The South will vote for the only candidate capable of running this country and that is Fred Dalton Thompson. Fred will have a landslide victory in South Carolina and when Super Tuesday gets here and is over Fred will be able to pick the next Vice President. On the Democratic side, we have already had Clinton for 8 years and Bush is still fixing his mess. As for Obama, kinda sounds like Osama(i.e. radical Muslim). Contrary to what Obama says about his religion, he was still brought up in an Islamic home. I don’t think that this country is ready for either a woman president or a black president. If the USA was ready for this, We would combine the two and put Condeleza Rice in office. With the World at war against terrorism and the U.S. economy in such bad shape, this country can NOT afford to put a Democrat in office. We need a Republican that will build our Military back up to the level it should be, especially with renewed tensions with Mr. Putin’s Russia. We need a Republican President that is going to support the future of Nuclear Energy. We need a Republican President to do something about illegal immigration. We need a Republican President to reform our Welfare System and make Drug Testing Mandatory to receive benefits. Working people are subject to drug testing, why shouldn’t welfare recipients. Finally we need a Repulibcan President that will reform our tax system and get rid of the antiquated IRS. We need Fred Thompson.
Mitt has experience _ John M. is to liberal _ Fred is to cool_ John E. is to ? _ Billiry is a Clinton
Huck is to red neck_ Obama has no experience_ Where the heck is Newt , the country needs
a real conservative. Religion is only a word if you don’t live it.. Oh yea . Rudy was a good D.A.
I still looking for a conservative . Forget Congress . Someone Call Jim Demint from S.C. He can show you how and what The U.S. needs. But don’t call Linsey Graham from S.C. he is a rino. I still have no one to vote for.
I pray Fred Thompson does not drop out . Of course he is no quitter. I can’t believe people are calling him to solid ,to religious,to old.,to honest on his beliefs.. Is that not what America was built upon and still stands? Has no one ever heard with age comes wisdom. I can not believe so many Americans have turned their back on morals,and values.
Fred Thompson is a very intellegant man that everyone is over looking. They are not listening to what he is saying. He is being honest with issues ,family values and the way he plans to build America forward . He is the only one that has a sound plan . He hasn’t been cutting throat for his gain. He is a man that salutes our nation’s flag with pride. He is very proud of our troops fighting for our freedom. He would never call them traitors or losers. He would not let terrorist repeat 9/11 .. He will not let outsiders come in and take our jobs we have left ,It was Bill Clinton that signed the Nafta Act ,inwhich gives trade to over seas compnies ,that is jobs are scarse ,not because any republican ..Jobs can and do pay less to other country employees . Thats also why the Mexicans are coming in illegal . They find jobs that American people feel don’t pay enough or just to hard to do…Its time the true American stops blaming and move forward. With the best knowledgable plans for America to prosper and grow . I hope more people really listens to what he is saying.
VOTE FRED THOMPSON FOR PRESIDENT OF THESE GREAT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA .
Young Democrats:
Your angst with the state of the world is understandable.
Your dislike and discomfort for the uncertainty in the Middle East is warranted; your brewing anxiety is justified.
It is you, your generation that carries the burden of a bleak future punctuated with horrible headlines of the economy and society, snap shots of more suffering to come. It is you, your generation that harbors’ the thoughts, the questions of what does this all mean for us, for me, for my future? Where are we headed? How are we, how am I to know?
It is you; it is your generation like many generations before yours that have been born into a world of chaos and seeming disorder running a course of unbridled despair and disappointment; and you ask: Who is it, and what is it going to take? Is it worth saving? And you answer, I know nothing; questions are all that I know.
Now ease your minds and calm your spirit, consider this saying that I do not recall who penned; also know that I paraphrase it from memory; but consider it deeply as it is a piece of the road map to answering all of your questions:
“If you are liberal at the age of eighteen you are compassionate and you care deeply about the world you live in. If you are a liberal Democrat by the age of thirty you care deeply about your country. If you are at the age of forty and you are not a conservative Republican you are an idiot.”
Now you must ask, are you, is your generation intelligent enough to rise above your years and do what is best for your future today? Do you want to wait until you are forty? Consider for a moment which party looks more like a popularity contest than a battle for the most important position for the most important job this or any country has to fill. Is one party devoid of real and outlined solutions yet filled with calls for ambiguous CHANGE? Realize this “change” is a calculated appeasement to your angst and youthful anxiety. These are themes that have repeated over and over generation after generation never actually being solved. Being intelligent, you must wonder why. This is a contest for a job unlike no other; this is a Presidential term like no other; it will define your future and your children’s future to come.
Do you think it wise to CHANGE something that has given you and all of us so much for so long?
Perhaps better you can relate to thinking life is a game where we are continually progressing to next and higher levels; you cannot throw away the knowledge of the past to survive the next level; you must learn new things but you must use the lessons, the knowledge, weapons of the past to journey on in search of your future, your next higher level; you do not CHANGE what you already know and discard what you already have.
Rise to the challenge young Democrats and think your way through this, “come up the years.” Your country, you are depending on it. And live content in your youth, speak out, be wild, be happy, choose to be wildly happy; vote for your future; vote Republican; and along the way learn what being a Conservative is really about. Realize it is the road map to answering all of your questions; it is your freedom, it is your future.
Quote: “I have no respect for mitt romney. I hate crowd pleasers. Im sick of shawn hannity and rush limbaugh talking down every conservative but romney. why you might say. because they are in big buisness just like romney is. The elite rich buisness corporation people stick with each other. Im sick of the elite and Im sick if big buisness. Republicans who have influence in mass media should not bash down all but one republican. They should unite and tell their listners and followers what republicans in general can do for this country. The republican party is loosing votes because of the elite like so… Its time for republicans to shape up, or we will soon be forced to when were obviously not ready when a demorcrat screws up this country like it is projected will happen very soon.”
Do your research first if you’re going to talk smack. The US has the 2nd highest Corporate Tax rate in the world. We are already tougher on big business compared to our “liberal” counter parts in Western Europe. Corporations are what make the world go around, they are what give you a job and suprise, suprise they are in it to make as much money as possible. Capitalism at its finest…
Let’s go Clintons! No matter what anyone says when Bill Clinton was in office the world was a better place economically. We didn’t have recessions going on. People losing jobs and allowing illegals in the US to take citizens jobs.
The Clintons have more knowledge of the world and world peace and how to run the country than any of the contenders.
Look at this way with Hillary president you have two for 1. Bill and Hillary will make sure the low income, education, jobs, economically the US is back in balance. Of course trying to fix what Bush messed up will be a job to do. There is no one that is more suitable than Hillary Clinton for President!
Hillary Clinton will be our President!!!!! Whew HEW!!!!!
We need to focus on who is the most qualified to run this country………….. The answer is Hillary Clinton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are on our way……………………………………….