The Republican debate in New Hampshire was a good show--Brit Hume, Wendell Goler, Chris Wallace, and Carl Cameron all did fine--but the real show was the candidates. I suppose that Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee seemed to do the best, with very different messages, and the FNC text-messaging poll results agreed.
But The Cable Gamer was struck by the absolute ordinary-ness of the "real people" questions, handled by Cameron, live from a diner. One fellow, who didn't seem like Mitt Romneyvery much, asked the former Massachusetts governor about the Iraq war. And a woman seemed to expect the Republicans to be for gay marriage, as she was.
In other words, these folks, assembled by Fox News, seemed to have only one thing in common: They lived in The Granite State. Which is to say, for all we know, they might be voting in the Democratic primary next year, and for the Democrat in the general election (it's worth recalling that John Kerry won NH's electoral votes in the '04 general election.)
And yet the Democrats have chosen to snub Fox during the debates, thereby costing them access to such obviously swinging voters.
Most peculiar.
