NEW HAMPSHIRE

Not as many words from me on this primary, mostly because I don't care terribly much, I'm more excited about next week's set.

Looks like early reports of a close Kerry victory (and a 4th place finish for Clark) were a bit off. I'm looking at you, Drudge.

Anyway, Kerry won by around a dozen points, with 3/4 of the precincts reporting. If I'm Kerry, I have to feel pretty good right now, because I just won a 2nd primary with around the same percentage vote total as the first one. I'm not sure what that means. Maybe it means that Kerry is really a man in his upper-30's. (:

Dean trailed Kerry by a lot, but possibly more important, he put a lot of space between himself and third place, so that will probably be enough for him to claim "victory" in New Hampshire after the Iowa debacle. He's already playing it up as a "solid" second place. With his money, his 50-state strategy and his support network, he'll have a fighting chance in the upcoming primaries.

Also, it looks as if Clark has held off Edwards for third place. This was the ordering I hoped for (though neither got the support I had hoped to see). I want strong Clark and Edwards candidacies going into the next round of states (here's why, aside from the fact that I really like both of them), and I think Edwards can handle a 4th place NH finish better than Clark can.

Also, Lieberman hasn't packed it in yet. We'll see how long this lasts...