The Political Wire: Duncan Hunter Wins One! (Delegate)

By FOX News (5:55 p.m. ET) 

FOXNews.com

Saturday, January 05, 2008

By FOX News (5:55 p.m. ET) 

Duncan Hunter is back in the race! So to speak.

The Republican California congressman who finished dead last in the Iowa caucuses Thursday, with .44 percent, won one delegate in the Wyoming GOP caucuses Saturday.

Mitt Romney won the day overall with eight delegates and Fred Thompson took home two. Caucuses were still being held late afternoon Saturday to determine all 12.

Hunter has been cut from upcoming debates, but Wyoming shows he'll at least have A delegate at the convention.

Most candidates overlooked Wyoming, in between Iowa and New Hampshire on the election calendar, but Romney visited, as did Hunter, Thompson and Ron Paul.

Big-Time Obama Bounce

By FOX News (5:54 p.m. ET)

New Hampshire polls are all over the board, but the latest from Rasmussen shows Barack Obama with a big-time bump after his Iowa caucus win Thursday.

The Jan. 4 poll gives the Illinois senator a 10-point lead over rival Hillary Clinton, who placed third in Iowa.

The survey of 510 likely voters shows Obama with 37 percent, Clinton with 27 percent and John Edwards with 19 percent. Compare that with a Dec. 18 Rasmussen poll that put Clinton at 31 percent and Obama at 28 percent.

RealClearPolitics.com poll averages from New Hampshire now show Obama with a slight edge over Clinton overall, but not every poll is as decisive as the Rasmussen survey. A Concord Monitor poll of 400 likely voters from Jan. 4-5 showed Obama with 34 percent and Clinton with 33 percent. Edwards pulled 23 percent in that poll.

But both Obama and Clinton are predicting clear victories in New Hampshire's primary, which will be held Tuesday.

In Nashua, N.H., Saturday, Obama spoke to a crowd of more than 2,500, still hitting his most salient themes.

"Hope is imagining and then working for and then fighting for what didn't seem possible. That is what we have a chance to do. We started something on Thursday but it was just the beginning," he said. "There is an assumption that it will not last ... If we are to make a mark on history, we cast aside the fear and cynicism and stand up."

Clinton hit the campaign trail in New Hampshire with equal vigor. The campaign announced Saturday it was continuing outreach to young voters, holding roundtable discussions with undecided voters and allowing others to pose questions directly to her on her Web site.

"I want to hear from young voters about their concerns and encourage them to participate in this incredible process," Clinton said in a statement. "I have been making change for 35 years, and with their help, I will go to work on Day One to make change in the White House."

Earlier Saturday, she spoke in Penacook, N.H., and drew contrasts between her health care plan and Obama's, which she claims would not cover everyone.

New Day of Niceness for GOP? ... Nah

By FOX News (11:50 a.m. ET)

Mitt Romney's back on air in New Hampshire with a new TV ad, and it doesn't even mention his rivals.

The ad, "Growth and Prosperity," discusses propelling America forward by sticking to conservative scruples. 

"This isn't the time for us to shrink from conservative principles. It's a time for us to stand in strength. America must remain the world's superpower," Romney says is the ad.

That's a shift in tone from the new Web ad released just the day before that went after rival John McCain for not supporting President Bush's tax cuts.

So does this mean the former Massachusetts governor is ushering in a new phase of congeniality, just three days before the Granite State primary?

Perish the thought.

Romney again criticized McCain Saturday in Derry, N.H., for his position on the tax cuts, and continued to pitch himself as the candidate of change, seeking to draw more distinctions between himself and the Arizona senator.

He said the party needs to put up a candidate of change for the general election, in case the GOP is facing Barack Obama, who won the Democratic Iowa caucuses on a message of hope and change.

"There were a couple of people whose prospects coming out of that election I think took a big hit and ... that is Hillary Clinton, who's been around Washington forever, and John McCain, who's been there even longer," Romney said. "Those two were handily rejected by people who had messages of change ... We have to have new people."

Dean Says Large Turnout Good News for Dems

By The Associated Press (11:19 a.m. ET)

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said Saturday the large turnout for the Iowa caucuses indicates Americans are looking for a Democrat to run the White House in 2008, but he added that the party still has to work to make that happen.

"Republicans may not know how to govern, but they have made it clear time and again they will do anything to win and hold on to power," said Dean in his party's weekly radio address.

Dean referred to alleged Republican schemes to interfere in past elections, including a 2002 phone jamming incident in New Hampshire, which is set to hold its presidential primaries Tuesday. A former national Republican Party official was convicted on federal telephone harassment charges in December 2005 over the jamming of state Democratic Party get-out-the-vote phone banks on Election Day 2002. An appeals court later overturned that conviction and sent the case back to a lower court.

Dean, who ran in the 2004 presidential election and was a distant third in the Iowa caucuses, also accused Republicans of voter intimidation in 2004 and using "immigration and race as a wedge to win elections instead of working with all Americans to solve problems."

On the Iowa turnout, Dean said the fact that hundreds of thousands of Iowans braved bitter temperatures Thursday to vote testifies to their commitment to change the nation's political direction. Iowa caucus returns showed that 239,000 Democrats and 116,000 Republicans took part.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who won Iowa's Democratic race with 38 percent of the vote, benefited from a surge in first-time caucus-goers and young voters in what was a record Democratic turnout.

"This week in Iowa we saw the process shift away from pollster's predictions to the voters finally having their say," Dean said. "And what they said loud and clear is that Americans trust Democrats to restore America. They do not want a third Bush term."

He emphasized that the Democratic Party is the agent for "change," a theme of the contest for the party's nomination.

"If you want to get out of Iraq and refocus America's priorities to really fight terrorism, vote for a Democrat for president," Dean said. "If you want to ensure that all Americans get affordable health care, vote for a Democrat for president."

 

RCP Poll

President Obama Job Approval

RCP Average: +7.7% Details
Approve 51.5%
Disapprove 43.8%

Congressional Job Approval

RCP Average: -41.2% Details
Approve 25.5%
Disapprove 66.7%

Direction of Country

RCP Average: -18.5% Details
Right Direction 37.5%
Wrong Track 56.0%