This is the last of my reporting from the Granite State where the people are polite, the bars close early and the speed traps and property taxes raise revenues instead of state income or sales taxes. I was reporting for the Afro American Newspapers which are published in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. My reports are on afro.com or you can read them here.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
For many, New Hampshire still a win
By Monroe Anderson
AFRO Staff Writer
MANCHESTER, N.H.-- It was a miss, but a miss so close that to many it doesn’t seem to matter.
Yes, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama lost to his chief rival, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton by a hair, a mere two percentage points.
But with a win in nearly all-White Iowa and an impressive showing in even Whiter New Hampshire, some see his loss as more of a win than anything else.
Consequently, when the January 26 Democratic primary in South Carolina rolls around, Beverly Rock will be in there doing just what she did in this week New Hampshire primary: supporting Barack Obama's bid to become the Democratic nominee for president.
“We are ready to take this country in a fundamentally different direction," he told his supporters.
"I'm already headed south to volunteer," said Rock, a 60-year-old grandmother from Dorchester, Mass., as she literally danced to Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," while leaving the Obama rally late Tuesday night in the gymnasium at Nashua South High School in Nashua, New Hampshire.
"I'm all fired up." Rock had just finished listening to speech congratulating challenger Hillary Clinton on her 39 to 37 percent victory in the nation's first primary election. In his speech after the results came in late Tuesday night, the freshman Illinois senator temporarily altered his rally cry from “CHANGE” to "Yes We Can!"
“We are ready to take this country in a fundamentally different direction," he told his supports.
Obama congratulated Clinton on her victory then went on to tell his supporters, "We know the battle ahead will be long."
Following their candidates speech, as they flowed out of the packed gym, one face after the next wore a look of disappointment--except for Rock's.
"I didn't consider it a concession," she said of Obama's speech. "I considered it an inspiration."
As far as she was concerned, after winning in Iowa, Obama was just being the gentleman.
“He let the lady go first," she said. She thought the too-close-to-call race was more a character builder than anything to be disappointed by.
"I'm encouraged to go back and say "wow,' second.," she said.
Rock may have a point.
Two months ago, Barack Obama's strong showing in New Hampshire would have been considered nothing less than a major win.
But then, last week's historic victory in Iowa got in the way of this week’s results in the Granite State—dimming to some degree Obama’s prospects of becoming the nation’s first Black Democratic Party presidential nominee.
Iowa left some skeptical African Americans "feeling more confident that Obama has a good chance of getting the white support he may need," said Rep. Mel Watt (D-North Carolina), who pointed out that everyone loves a winner.
"Black voters are just as practical," he said, "as white voters are."
Now, all bets may be off. The loss to Hillary Clinton has slowed to some degree momentum for Obama. It revived the one question that has shackled Obama since he first announced his run for the White House nearly a year ago to unprecedented performance a week ago in Iowa: Can he really come out on top? 
A hands-down Obama victory, as all the opinion polls indicated up to the minute the polling booths opened, would have put an end to that question. And would have made it all but certain that Obama would have racked up a third win once the January 26 South Carolina Democratic primary was over.
But that was not to happen in a state that, up until the Iowa victory, was considered Clinton territory. Still, six weeks ago, Obama was a 20-point underdog in the state.
But neither a win in Iowa or a loss in New Hampshire alters a fundamental truth, Watt said. "He's going to have to win every vote and watch everything he says," he said.
Valerie Jarrett, chairman of the Chicago board of the Chicago Stock Exchange and a senior Obama adviser, said that last week's Iowa victory has already changed the attitudes of black voters in the South.
Jarrett said she had just returned from South Carolina where she had been in rural counties and big cities, and the sentiment was "look what happened in Iowa. If folks can support him in Iowa, he can win."
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