She’s baaaaack!

Hillary battled polls and pundits this evening to come out ahead in New Hampshire. Who knew?

Well, not many apparently. Or maybe we’re just so desperate for a Democratic winner that even the so-called free press is willing to lay down for any old winner without exactly doing their homework. Obama’s been treated as such a shoo-in as a result of his Iowa win that it seemed to hardly matter that New Hampshire-ites come out and vote at all. Except, thankfully, New Hampshire citizens paid the media very little mind when making up their own minds about the Democratic candidates this evening and emerged in droves.

It’s not that Obama didn’t deserve his extremely exciting victory in Iowa. He did. It’s that the press has been so quick to jump on the Obama-bandwagon; a dangerous proposition for voters most of all. The best woman or man should win the Democratic nomination – we want to see the candidates get to the bottom of each other’s policy positions, voting records, campaign financers, and future plans for the nation.

For all the talk of how Obama’s victory in Iowa was so miraculous because he won the female vote there, the polls did not reflect a similar breakdown this evening.

In a primary consisting of a majority of female voters (57%), women supported Clinton 46% to Obama’s 34%. And Clinton swept the married and non-married mother-vote easily, with 44% of mothers and 42% of married mothers voting for her. Edwards received only 17% of each while Obama won over 34% of each.

Maybe not as surprisingly, Obama did win the male vote with 40% of men voting for him tonight –compared to Clinton capturing 29% and Edwards taking 19% of the male vote.

Will Hillary’s win this evening propel the press to take a more investigative approach towards all of the candidates? Lord knows we could use some heavier questions to ponder than whether or not Hillary’s tears are appropriate during a campaign.

With only two states under their belt, the candidates should be just out of the gate in this horse-race. Instead, it seems as if the press would like to simply declare a winner and head home. The Chicago Tribune called Clintons’ win this evening “stunning.” Huh? Why “stunning”? This is the second state in the entire nation to vote on a Democratic contender, people. I would hardly call her win “stunning.”

Obama is a candidate that has the power to bring the masses out and together. New Hampshire voters this evening – 66% of them – said they had a “strongly favorable” opinion of the senator, even if they didn’t vote for him. And, as Adam Nagourney writes in the New York Times,

“As she leaves New Hampshire, the reverse appears to be true: it is the Clinton campaign that is handcuffed by the aura that surrounds Mr. Obama. Every time either Clinton or one of their surrogates attack Mr. Obama, they stand as reminders of the kind of politics that Mr. Obama has vowed to transcend.”

It’s important for the press to realize that, as McCain’s “upset” victory this evening shows for the Republicans, there is no sure footing yet for the top Democratic contenders in this uphill climb either.

For the Spinal Tap fans amongst us, Hillary’s win this evening just turned this race “up to eleven.”