Throwing out all norms of either scholarly reliance on data or journalistic ethics, I’m going to confirm Ryan Lizza’s impression of Edwards’ NH strength by relying on my mother, a NH Democrat and Edwards volunteer. She was a pretty diehard Clintonophile (always talking about how charismatic and electrifying he is in person; NH voters have views about things like that), and always encouraged me in my early activism, but she’s never signed up to do stuff herself before. And, being a Democrat in New Hampshire, she’s had a long time to learn habits of discouragement, of thinking that the candidate she likes usually loses. She’s giddy with excitement about Edwards, getting up early in the morning to to events and work on the campaign, and thinks that people are getting progressively more excited about him very quickly.
Relying on one’s mom, who is herself not a disinterested source, is of course the height of anecdotalism. But rather a lot of primary-coverage journalism relies on one or two enthusiastic ‘ordinary voter’ types, so, what the hey.
(NB: This does not indicate excitement about Edwards on my part. I stand by my insistence that it takes more than a drawl to turn an Old Democrat into a New Democrat.)
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