The fallout: 'Change,' but of a different kind

Three days after the primary, the dust is still settling on the implications of the election. The polls and the pundits were dead wrong when predicting the results. The press, the pundits and even the candidates are all reeling from the votes of a record number of New Hampshirites.

Sen. Hillary Clinton was dead in the water in the final days before the primary, according to poll data, and the predictions of talking-heads on the 24-hour news networks, most flagrantly Chris Matthews of MSNBC. Some in the journalism community argue that an anti-Matthews vote turned the election in Clinton's favor, a position also seemingly taking hold at center-left political blog Talkingpointsmemo.com.

Some outlets are taking responsibility on behalf of the industry for their mistakes in coverage. The co-founders of Politico.com, John Harris and Jim VandeHei, ran an extensive mea culpa, in which they proclaim:

New Hampshire sealed it. The winner was Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the loser — not just of Tuesday's
primary but of the 2008 campaign cycle so far — was us.
"Us" is the community of reporters, pundits and prognosticators who so confidently — and so rashly — stake our reputations on the illusion that we understand politics and have special insight that allows us to predict the behavior of voters.

They say their publication Politico is not immune to this criticism, and in fact indulged in its trapdoors as well.

But the primary results have completely reshaped the race. No longer is Sen. Barack Obama the heir apparent for the Democratic party; he will have to earn it against a formidable foe in Clinton, and a pesky Sen. John Edwards, who placed second in Iowa and third in New Hampshire.

Clinton's victory is also attributed to a change in her campaign approach: a return to listening. She took hours of questions from voters, eventually resulting in her "Hillary moment," the so-called tearing-up scandal. Obama did not take questions from voters, instead relying on the inspiration of his message to rally supporters. And it likely hurt him.

The results from the Republican primary show a gigantic mess on that side of the ticket. Sen. McCain's victory shook up the Republican race for the nomination, again.

There are now five candidates that all have a chance at holding the mantle of frontrunner for the Republican nod: McCain, Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ark.), Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.), Mayor Rudy Giuliani (N.Y.) and Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.).

No better example of this would be Thursday night's FOX News Republican debate in Charleston, S.C., when Thompson said “This is a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party and its future" in an attack on what he called Huckabee's "liberal" stances on foreign policy.

Michael Reagan, the son of President Ronald Reagan, explains how his father built the Republican coalition that is now "in shambles" since its creation during the late 1970s in an article on HumanEvents.com, a conservative magazine.

New Hampshire refused to rubber-stamp the results of the Iowa caucuses from five days before, and as a result, have molded the race for president in 2008 in its image.

The next battles occur in Michigan, Nevada, South Carolina and Florida, before the Super-Duper Tuesday on Feb. 5, where 23 states will select the nominee for President.

The Chronicle had a front-row seat for what is so far the pivotal battleground for the 2008 campaign. And it will again on Oct. 15, when the University hosts the final Presidential debate.