It’s up to contrarian New Hampshire now to save the horseraces in Campaign 2000, or we might all go to sleep till November.
The Iowa caucuses went with the safe and sound favorites, Gore and Bush, and might have sealed their party nominations, except that New Hampshire voters have this funny habit of tipping the early leaders on their backsides.
The New Hampshire primary has been humbling the powerful since Estes Kefauver handed Harry Truman his hat in 1952; LBJ got the rude New Hampshire treatment in 1968. Ronald Reagan got the comeback benefit of New Hampshire in 1980, against George Bush. Bush got it against Bob Dole in 1988.
So the question is what rebound value New Hampshire has this year for Iowa’s losers, Bradley and McCain-and what New Hampshire makes of Iowa’s strong second-place Republican, Steve Forbes.
Guests:
Tom Rath, attorney, advisor to the Bush Campaign, and member of the Republican National Committee;
Kim Zachos from the McCain Campaign;
Mark Fernald from the Bradley camp;
Joe Keefe from the Gore Campaign