New Hampshire wrap-up & the necessity of telephoning the voters

Coming home from Boston tonight on Alaska Airlines Flight 15, I bumped into Ralph Munro, our long-time Washington State Secretary of State (he retired in 2000). He was in the seat behind me (yes, coach!) and had been in New Hampshire the last week or so doing "grunt work" for the McCain campaign...grunt work being working the telephones. I have done the telephone thing for various candidates and for school levy elections. It is indeed grunt work...grueling, often unrewarding, and difficult. You get a lot of hostility and a lot of hangups. But the conventional wisdom says it's important work, and no matter how digital and internet- and media-based campaigns become, campaigns still rely on phone banks to turn the voters out.

Good on you Ralph...nice meeting you.

---o0o---

Drudge Report predicts Hillary exit, stage left

Senator Hillary Clinton: relegated to the shadows?

According to the Drudge Report, tomorrow's likely double-digit defeat in New Hampshire, a collapse in national polls and a probable drastic fund-raising slowdown are pushing Hillary Clinton to pull out of the race.

"Senator Hillary Clinton is preparing for a tough decision: Does she get out of the race? And when?! 'She can't take multiple double-digit losses in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada," laments one top campaign insider to the DRUDGE REPORT. "If she gets too badly embarrassed, it will really harm her. She doesn't want the Clinton brand to be damaged with back-to-back-to-back defeats."Meanwhile, Democrat hopeful John Edwards has confided to senior staff that he is staying in the race because Hillary "could soon be out." "Her money is going to dry up," Edwards confided, a top source said Monday morning.

"Key players in Clinton's inner circle are said to be split. James Carville is urging her to fight it out through at least February and Super Tuesday, where she has a shot at thwarting Barack Obama in a big state. "She did not work this hard to get out after one state! All this talk is nonsense," said one top adviser. But others close to the former first lady now see no possible road to victory, sources claim. "

Take it for what it's worth. Matt Drudge is often right on the money. On the other hand, he has also had headlines about the John Edward's love-child, and an unnamed Obama scandal, neither of which actually materialized. Neither of those two bogus stories were ever retracted or corrected.


---o0o---