Dixville Notch goes to Obama and McCain

CNN reports the tiny hamlets of Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, New Hampshire have cast their votes for Senators Barack Obama for the Democrat and John McCain for the Republican primary elections. The little communities situated near the border with Canada were the first to cast their ballots in the granite state's 2008 primary. Senator Obama carried Dixville Notch with seven votes, former Senator John Edwards received 2 votes, former Governor Bill Richardson got 1 vote and Senator Hillary Clinton received no votes along with Congressman Dennis Kucinich.

The voting results for these boroughs may be a harbinger of things to come in the New Hampshire primary later today. Democratic voters are responding to Obama's clarion call for change in the way things are run in Washington. Barak Obama points to his experience working with Republicans in the Illinois state legislature as proof that he is able to break the political gridlock in Washington, although the three year freshman Senator from Illinois has no stellar record of voting outside party lines while in the nation's capital. Despite the claim by Democrats and their media allies that the fractious partisanship we see today is due to the "failed policies of the Bush administration" the fact is that partisanship has existed in the Republic since the establishment of a two party system. Senator Obama talks a good talk but his bipartisan resume is razor thin.

People are longing for change today as they do in every election cycle. Modern campaign promises to break deadlock and partisan bickering in Washington date back to the campaigns of Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Nothing much has changed here except for the public's desire to see new people at the helm of the ship of state. While I'm no fan, Mitt Romney accurately summarized the public's current mood for change recently when he remarked, "It’s long past time to bring real change to Washington,....That’s never going to happen if all we do is send the same people back to Washington to sit in different chairs.”

Change is in the air. For the Democrats, contrast the tired, almost somber rallies of the Clinton faithful with the exuberant party-like celebrations of the Obama backers. One pundit has already taken the time to chalk up the Clinton years as the "End of an Era". Peter Wehner writes in Commentary Magazine, "watch the Clintons’ rage and desperation grow in the last days of this campaign will not be pretty. They will lash out at everyone, including Obama, the media, her own campaign, and maybe, eventually, each other. This is a couple not known for their grace or for holding lightly to their grip on power."

Change is also in the air for the Republicans. Voters are saying with their endorsements of Huckabee in Iowa and soon-to-be victorious McCain in New Hampshire that money can't buy elections. Republicans are looking for a candidate whom they can identify with and will most likely weather the tough trail all the way to the White House.