N.H. primary as expected, with one or two wrinkles

The New Hampshire primary came out much as expected. The big positive news of the primary was that Rick Perry had a vote total of 1,622 which was rounded up to 1%. Arithmatic would have required 2,385 votes to be 1%. Some could say that Perry should be impeached by the Texas legislature when he finally returns from this fiasco, impeached for making a mockery of his proud state. Of course being perceived as cocky and clueless by the rest of the nation is not an impeachable offense, but with his pay to play political record it would not be too hard to find something that is. Where there is a will there is a way.

Other than that the other standout poor performance was that of Newt Gingrich at 9%. Being unpleasant and angry is not often a winning strategy. It's possible that with a new $5 million of Las Vegas money added to his PAC's war chest Gingrich still can go on to more "respectable" showings but his intial focus on running a statesmanlike campaign has turned into roadkill.

Santorum had minimal campaign coverage and no advertising in New Hampshire so his 9% was much more palatable than Gingrich's, and in South Carolina he may find some more supportive voters to siphon support away from Paul and Gingrich. That's good for Romney as anyone who would vote for Santorum would be unlikely to have ever considered Romney.

Those aspects of this primary stood out. Other than that Huntsman did get some payoff from all of his effort in the state, but not enough. Paul's popularity among young voters is notable but it is unlikely that South Carolina and Florida will be kind to him. Romney came away with the victory margin that the polls predicted. That's big, and his only enemy was himself as he still manages to open mouth insert foot at times.