Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:
* Final Rasmussen numbers out of New Hampshire for the GOP: McCain 32%, Romney 31%, Huckabee 10%. Final Zogby: McCain 36%, Romney 27%, Huckabee 10%.
* Final Rasmussen numbers out of New Hampshire for the Dems: Obama 37%, Clinton 30%, Edwards 19%. Final Zogby: Obama 42%, Clinton 29%, Edwards 17%.
* Dixville Notch, N.H., the first town to vote in the state’s primary, is always fun for a little political theater. This morning, the village, which has 17 voters, backed Obama with seven votes (a landslide in Dixville Notch) and McCain with four votes. Turnout was 100%.
* Hart’s Location, N.H., the second town to vote, had very similar results, with Obama and McCain leading.
* A couple of idiots interrupted a Hillary Clinton speech yesterday with a banner that read, “Iron my shirts.” The two 20-something men began shouting in unison: “Iron my shirts! Iron my shirts!” Before the two were escorted out by security, the senator said, “Oh, the remnants of sexism are alive and well.”
* Speaking of disruptions, Obama was interrupted by about a dozen anti-abortion protesters at an event yesterday. The WSJ reported, “Obama stopped his speech and told the rest of the crowd that ‘there’s no need to boo,’ but that didn’t stop them…. After quieting down the crowd, he told the chanting protesters that ‘I understand your position but this isn’t going to solve anything.’ About two minutes after they began chanting, security tossed them out. Obama quieted down the crowd as they cheered the protesters’ departure. Free speech is ‘part of the American tradition, too,’ he said. It’s not easy to ‘stand up in a crowd of people who don’t agree with you.'”
* The polls in South Carolina are likely to change after New Hampshire, but for now, Rasmussen shows Huckabee leading the GOP field with 28%, followed by McCain at 21%, and Romney at 15%. SurveyUSA, meanwhile, shows Huckabee ahead in South Carolina with 36%, followed by Romney at 19%, and McCain at 17%.
* As for the Dems in South Carolina, Rasmussen shows Obama first with 42%, followed by Clinton with 30%, and Edwards at 14%. SurveyUSA, meanwhile, shows Obama at 50%, Clinton second with 30%, and Edwards third with 16%.
* Predictably, the national polls are on the move, as well. Gallup, which had shown Clinton leading Obama nationally by 18 points, now shows the two tied at 33%. Among Republicans, Huckabee has claimed the national lead with 25%, followed by Giuliani with 20%, and McCain at 19%.
* I can’t say I like the sound of this: “Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political campaign, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be anti-business. ‘We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed,’ chamber President Tom Donohue said.”
* And finally, Bill Clinton was confronted by a group of Ron Paul supporters in New Hampshire yesterday, which insisted that 9/11 was an “inside job.” The former president responded, “You wanna know what I think? You guys who think 9/11 was an inside job are crazy as hell. My wife was the senator from New York when that happened. I was down at Ground Zero. I saw the victims’ families. You’re nuts.”