[T]he more assholish her detractors behave, the more you help her. The way she was treated the past few days in New Hampshire was a disgrace, and likely a large reason for her surprise victory. So keep attacking her for bullshit reasons, and you'll be generating more and more sympathy votes for her. Obama's "you're likable enough" was likely worth 2-3 points all by its lonesome self...I think this is probably what made all of the difference. Everyone is all a-buzz this morning about the discrepancy between the exit poll data and the final results in New Hampshire. Yet the exit poll data wasn't that far off, at least as far as Obama is concerned. Matt Yglesias shows here that Obama got pretty much the percentage that he got in the final polling before the election.
The more she's attacked on personal grounds, the more sympathy that real person will generate, the more votes she'll win from people sending a message to the media and her critics that they've gone way over the line of common decency. You underestimate that sympathy at your own peril. If I found myself half-rooting for her given the crap that was being flung at her, is it any wonder that women turned out in droves to send a message that sexist double-standards were unacceptable? Sure, it took one look at Terry McAuliffe's mug to bring me back down to earth, but most people don't know or care who McAuliffe is. They see people beating the shit out of Clinton for the wrong reasons, they get angry, and they lash back the only way they can -- by voting for her.
What probably happened is that the substantial number of undecideds broke for Clinton at the end because they grew sick about the media taking a giant crap all over her after what happened in Iowa. It's understandable; I wouldn't hesitate to vote for a candidate that doesn't really grab me if meant that Chris Mathews would feel at least little bit like the giant dipshit that he is.
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