Okay, sports fans, time to be a New Hampshire primary prognosticator.
Everybody thinks Barack Obama wins the Ds primary. Any chance of that not happening? Do you think John Edwards can catch Hillary Clinton for second place? If Edwards can't do that, can he keep going? If he does pass Hillary, is it over for her?
On the Republican side, suffice to say it's a much tougher call. John McCain is surging, but will the independents be drawn to the bright lights of the Obama-Clinton-Edwards primary this year and do to McCain what they did to Democrat Bill Bradley in 2000, when McCain was the voter magnet? I'm saying Mitt Romney can win this, maybe.
Who comes in third in the GOP primary -- Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani or Ron Paul?
Who drops out after Tuesday? Fred Thompson? Bill Richardson?
As you political junkies out there surely know, deciphering what will go down in the Granite State can be tricky. The state just loves to spring surprises on the nation.
A quick story in that regard. When I was over there last week working the Jim Barnett-McCain story (see Saturday's Freeps) we stopped by MaryAnn's Diner in Derry, where McCain and new best friend Sen. Joe Lieberman had showed up for lunch as dazzled diners watched nearby.
Nearly every candidate worth talking about has passed through the joint this winter. I spoke to the diner's owner, Bill Andreoli, about who he liked. He said he was "undecided" noting that Hillary was due in for a visit on Sunday and that Bill Clinton had spent 90 minutes there the previous weekend.
Sure, he said, he liked McCain -- who wouldn't when the fella was is eating your food and schmoozing your customers. But when I asked him who he voted for in '04, he said John Kerry. And in '00? Al Gore.
So you never can tell what some voters in that crazy state might do at the last minute on Tuesday.
Your thoughts, predictions?
-- Sam Hemingway
