Gregg Is In; "Deal" Struck With Replacement

President Obama will nominate Judd Gregg for Commerce; there is no word on who N.H. Gov. John Lynch will name as replacement, though apparently there is an "understanding" that it will be a Republican who will agree not to run for the seat in 2010, thus giving Democrats an excellent chance to pick up the seat in the mid-terms.

UPDATE: And this is why I hardly read Politico. According to David Rogers, this pick is "draining the Senate of the very talent [President Obama] needs to achieve this goal", citing the pick of Ken Salazar as well for Interior. So picking Gregg is a loss for Obama because the Senate is losing moderate Republicans, a fact attributable to the right-wing shift of the GOP, not anything Obama has done and even though Gregg will certainly be replaced by a moderate Republican. And Ken Salazar got thrown in as well because he is the "eyes and ears" of the Democratic caucus and valuable to Reid, even though his replacement is a capable Democrat. If anything, the failure to replace Gregg with a Democrat would make things harder for Obama, but I guess that's a too obvious conclusion.

The Media Was Wrong...Surprise

Glenn Greenwald demonstrates how, despite their very best efforts at being wrong about everything and unfairly influencing people in the process, the press failed to derail Hillary Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire.

UPDATE: The most delicious aspect of Hillary's win last night is watching the media, who were only yesterday writing breathlessly about her doomed campaign, now being hoisted by their own petards. Because they set the bar so low, they have no choice now but to declare that Hillary's victory last night was a "stunning comeback", thus providing an unintended (and almost certainly undesired) boost to her campaign and making her victory a much bigger story than it otherwise would have been. Of course, this "boost" will prove to be as vacuous as the death-knells were so I seriously doubt it will hurt Obama in the upcoming primaries, but it is plain amusing to watch.

NH Results

CNN is calling it for McCain on the Republican side. Very interesting. With 13 precincts reporting, Clinton is at 40% to Obama's 36%. CNN says Edwards will come in third, as he's trailing at 17%.

UPDATE: It's still a close one between Clinton and Obama. You can see county-by-county results here.

UPDATE II: CNN is calling it for Clinton, with 72% of the precincts reporting.

UPDATE III: My own completely unsophisticated political analysis is that Obama's victory in Iowa was a little like a football time driving down the field for a touchdown on the first possession, and Clinton's victory tonight is a little like the other team responding with their own high-yardage, clock consuming scoring drive. In other words, the game is hardly over yet. In fact it's only just begun!

NHrs Go to the Polls Today

Today is the New Hampshire primary, and voters are going to the polls. I still think it's insane that Iowa and New Hampshire have as much sway as they do, but it's still all very exciting, isn't it?

UPDATE: As in Iowa, New Hampshire-ites were also apparently not motivated enough last time to turn out.

UPDATE: George Packer is hanging out with some voters in New Hampshire who could do America a favor by staying home.