New Hampshire! New Hampshire! New Hampshire! (Tuesday's Night Of Endless Coverage)

Hi everybody. Well, two states down...48 more to go. And man, if the media keep spinning themselves around like they did for tonight and Iowa, they're not going to make all 50. First Clinton is crowned the next Commander in Chief, then she's on the ropes, and now on top again. McCain was the lovable maverick with the dying campaign and now "Mac is back!" Stop. Reboot. Time for a new media narrative. You know, if the pundits would just shut up, they'd probably be wrong a lot less.

I spent the first 15 minutes or so of coverage flipping back and forth between CNN and MSNBC on about 10 second intervals. What a bizarre experience. They were both making the same wrong predictions with the same tired phrasing. I was thinking about sticking with MSNBC tonight because Keith Olbermann's commentary is probably better than anything you'll get on CNN, but, I'm sorry, Chris Matthews needs to be smacked. Seriously, stop talking. I believe the word I'm looking for is insufferable. So I went back to my usual home at CNN.

For the rock dwellers, McCain took the prize on the republican side, with Romney following behind. On the other side, Obama's big lead going in was apparently fictional, because he and Clinton duked it out in a nail biter all night, with Clinton finally emerging victorious and Edwards coming in third. It should be interesting to see what happens with the republicans because they seem to be in all kinds of disarray. I was sort of glad to see a new winner for the democrats because this opens things wide up. I want to play too. It would suck if the nominee was basically already chosen before the rest of us get to vote. Although, I kind of wish it was Edwards to lead, but oh well, there's always South Carolina.

And really, that's about all there is to say, but I will leave you with a few random comments I noted during the coverage:

• Ralph Reed? Why is Ralph Reed on my television? I don't remember him there for Iowa. Apparently anyone can be a pundit. Was Scooter Libby unavailable?
  

• "Mac is back!" just makes me think of a Big Mac. Or that cute guy that does the commercials opposite PC.
  

• McCain's speech lasted forever and, sorry, did not inspire.

• My apologies to Anderson Cooper, but this from TVNewser's live blogging of the primary made me laugh out loud: 9:52: Anderson Cooper on CNN, word for word, about John McCain: "Not the best speaker out there. Certainly he reads, he doesn't like tele-prompters, he reads from, from, you know, paper, written, stuff written on a page, but, but, he is real." Sorry Anderson, had to do it.

• Obama may have lost, but that speech was a winner. Yes we can!

• The discussion of the Hillary almost-tears will not go away. Some are even crediting her emotion for her win. Now all the candidates are going to start tearing up. There hasn't been this much inane talk about an incident of almost-crying since, well, since Anderson almost-cried in Waveland.
  

• John King says McCain is super stubborn. Seeing as we already have a guy in office that would continue to drive into a brick wall rather than change course, maybe this whole stubborn thing needs more discussion.
  

• Metaphor police. Drop the analogies and nobody gets hurt. We're told McCain is Lazarus. McCain is a maverick. McCain is outside the club. Can a souffle rise twice? Oh my God, stop!

• John King gently coaxing his irritable technology to work was kind of adorable.
  

• Anderson did not blog today. Tsk, tsk. He made it a whole seven days. Heh, I knew that resolution would get him. Did you notice how they're putting the posters pictures up now too? Nice. But what about the behind-the-sceners? Especially Charlie Moore. No reason. Ahem.
  

• This is completely unrelated, but if at this point you're sick of politics, here's video (via TVNewser) of Anderson and other World News Now anchors talking about their time working on that broadcast. Apparently the hours were soul-crushing, but sometimes they had doughnuts. Mmm, doughnuts.