Here's to you, New Hampshire
BEFORE WE close the book on the 2008 New Hampshire primary, I'd like to congratulate the biggest winners in Tuesday's contest.
Way to go, Granite Staters. You had a lot on the line this year, and you came through in stunning fashion.
As the marketing types might say, you really enhanced your brand. Or, to put it in plain English, you reinforced your reputation as fair, savvy, discerning voters who think for themselves.
That status had suffered some in recent years.
In 2004, your decision to switch from Howard Dean to John Kerry after Kerry won in Iowa made you seem prone to sway in the Hawkeye State's wind. That's one reason why so many candidates invested so much time there this time around; after the Kerry experience, they saw winning Iowa as the way to prevail in New Hampshire.
You were also developing an image as a place that frequently falls for the (Bay State) boy next door. Witness Democrats Mike Dukakis in 1988, Paul Tsongas in 1992, and Kerry himself in 2004. (And, much further back, Democrat John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Republican Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. in 1964.)
So had you handed the 2008 Republican prize to Mitt Romney, you might have sealed a reputation as a dependable date for Massachusetts candidates. But despite Romney's one-time lead, you ended up looking askance at a campaign marked by expedient politics and a heavy reliance on attack ads.
Nor were you wowed by celebrity. You proved underwhelmed by the campaign Rudy Giuliani waged, an effort long on boasting about his record in New York, but short on specific plans.
Instead, by going with John McCain, you showed that you put a premium on straight talk, even when you don't agree on all the issues.
What's more remarkable, however, is the poll-defying win you gave Hillary Clinton.
Like most of the media, with only four full days separating the two events, I expected Barack Obama to surf his Iowa momentum to Granite State gold.
But you guys refused simply to second Iowa's conclusion. Instead, you took your own measure of the candidates and arrived at a different decision.
From conversations with voters, I know that you were intrigued by the charismatic Obama.
And yet, in the end, something about his high-flying campaign didn't sit quite right with the state.
Many of you were genuinely undecided - one could see that when Obama asked for a display of hands - and you wanted some real substance to seal the deal.
On Saturday, I met Linda McAllister of Bow, an elementary school principal, at Merrimack Valley High School in Penacook, where she and her husband had come to hear Clinton speak - and where Clinton answered questions for almost two hours. Linda was trying to decide between Clinton and Obama; the next day, the McAllisters went to Manchester to see Obama.
"You could just feel the temperature, the excitement, and the energy of the crowd rising and rising," McAllister said. "By the end, he had believers." But not her. "I wanted to believe, I really did. But I just didn't get that sense of deep experience that can get the job done."
McAllister also "really wanted to hear from his lips what he was going to do about the war, education, and healthcare, and he didn't do that." Instead of offering specifics, Obama kept his inspirational oratory at the level of Democratic generalities. And he didn't entertain questions. And so, in important ways, he took New Hampshire's political traditions for granted.
McAllister ultimately chose Clinton's conversational, specifics-filled approach.
"The final struggle was between heart and head," she told me. "I chose head because I think Hillary has the best chance to bring change."
Donna d'Hemecourt, a Concord Democrat and interior designer, left a Friday Obama rally in Concord planning to vote for him. But over the next two days, Clinton "made a good strong case," says d'Hemecourt, who was particularly impressed after reading a friend's e-mail containing some of the answers Clinton gave at a Portsmouth event. "I ended up voting for Hillary Clinton," she said. "She was very specific. She makes you feel like she does have a plan."
Thoughtful, independent-minded voters like McAllister and d'Hemecourt made this primary truly unpredictable - and that very unpredictability should help keep the Granite State important.
Well done, New Hampshire. My hat's off to you.
Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com.
