The Polls That Shaped the Outcome

Joining me for some brief readings is the series curator, our Executive Editor, Jon Greenberg. Hi Jon.

Hi Xenia. Let’s start with this one from a young woman, a teacher, who calls herself MMF.
She was leaning towards Clinton early on and she had “never caught the Obama fever” although she thinks he’s a great candidate and maybe more electable than Clinton. But she writes , I think the electability question, while highly relevant, is grounded in sexism and I refuse to let my vote bow down to that. If we can't find a strong woman electable, then we get what we deserve

Did she ever waver?

Yes, and here’s where we get a view into the final decision process. She saw Bill Richardson on Monday and she was ready to vote for him based on the issues. But then a student of hers told her about the polls that put Obama 10 points ahead of Clinton. She writes These polls made me think Clinton might really need my vote and voting for Richardson would help Obama to a big win. That sealed the deal for me. I walked downtown and voted for Clinton.
By the way, she says one thing DID NOT influence her. Hillary Clinton’s emotional moment in Portsmouth. She heard about it only after she was on her way to the polls.

I pulled another post about the polls. Here.

This is from Alewife. It's noon and I have already met three people who were undeclared voters who chose to vote for McCain so that Romney would not win, but wish now they had voted for Obama. They thought, BECAUSE OF THE POLLS that Obama had it locked up over Clinton.

So the polls, which are supposed to describe what’s going on become a factor that shape what happens.

And that of course is not new. But what’s different this time is that instead of polls being a self-fulfilling prophecy, they contain the seeds of their own demise.

There’s a last one here. It’s not about who won or lost. It’s more of a tribute to the New Hampshire primary. It comes from a writer who goes by username Brian and he’s addressing voters around the country.

The nation should think of New Hampshire as the police, the rest of the nation as the jury. We don't decide, you do. Because we are small, we take the "suspects" into our homes and coffee shops and we grill them, interrogate them, trip them up when they give evasive answers. We create a "transcript" on each "suspect" so each "juror" across this country can make an informed decision, not just something based upon media hype or television ads

Something to think about for the states that wish that New Hampshire did not go first. Jon, you followed Exeter for 12 months. So how did Exeter vote yesterday?

Obama over Clinton by 200 votes and McCain over Romney by about 300.

Thanks very much. We’ve been reading excerpts from Primary Place Online with Executive Editor Jon Greenberg. You can post your own comments on the site. The address is www.primaryplace.org.