As the good citizens of New Hampshire turn out in what are expected to be record numbers on this balmy winter’s day, a couple of notes from the end of the trail:
– I was traveling with the McCain campaign yesterday — part of it with the candidate on the Straight Talk Express, the other part on the press bus, which broke down on the highway during a mid-afternoon drive between events in Hanover and Concord. Just about every journalist on the bus yelled out “metaphor alert!”. Imagined headline: “McCain Loses Base On Day Before Primary: Leaves Press Behind”. McCain’s bus rambled on without a problem and with Katie Couric on board. After the campaign sent vans and an SUV, we all eventually made it to Manchester.
– Amid all the reports about turmoil in the Clinton campaign (the best of them by Karen – here and here), I spoke to one source on the inside who a) confirmed that some people close to Hillary worry that staying in the race too long could hurt her image, although they are in a distinct minority, and b) denied rumors that Mark Penn might be “leaving” the campaign soon. This source did quip, however, that “Harold Ickes found out he was fired in the New York Times, so you never know,” referring to Ickes’ ouster from the White House after Bill Clinton’s re-election in 1996.