12 February 2020 — 0130 mst

New Hampshire primary and Joe Biden’s last hurrah

With ≈ 91 percent of the precincts reporting, Bernie Sanders has 26 percent of the vote and a 4k-vote lead over Pete Buttigieg. That’s too close to call. Amy Klobuchar has 20 percent of the vote. She’ll be third. The big losers are Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden, who are in single digits and within a point of each other.

Warren says her campaign is built for the long haul, but this hurts and may begin a downward spiral in which less money is raised, more staff are laid off, and the resources required to get out the message and the vote are reduced as Super Tuesday approaches. She’s in trouble.

Biden’s in bigger trouble and beginning to panic. Instead of staying in New Hampshire to thank and support his campaign staff there, he bugged out, jetting to South Carolina where he thinks he can jumpstart his campaign. I doubt he can. Badly losing Iowa and New Hampshire dimishes his aura of invincibility and electability, and undercuts his ability to raise money. According to the latest Quinnipiac Poll, and may have cost him half of his support from black voters.

His campaign is in a death spiral from which there will be no recovery. The cheers are growing fainter. A distinguished senior politician’s last campaign will end in smoke and flames, and sad memories of a a bewildered old man who lacked the strength, courage, and wisdom, to pass the torch.