Why Hillary Clinton shouldn’t get a pass on a New Hampshire loss [View all]

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Hillary Clinton high-fives a supporter outside a polling place in Derry, N.H. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
To hear Hillary Clinton and her supporters talk about her chances in Tuesday's New Hampshire presidential primary, you would think she was an underfunded upstart challenging a sitting president of the United States.

It's an "uphill climb." Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), who is challenging Clinton for the Democratic nomination, is a native son (or close to it) in a state that has shown a tendency to favor neighbors. He's way ahead in polls. Some people said Clinton should just skip the state, but she said no way. And, just in case you missed all of that dampening of expectations, the former secretary of state spent the day in Flint, Mich., on Sunday — just two days before the primary vote.

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Consider:

* Clinton has the endorsement of the state's Democratic governor (Maggie Hassan) and the state's lone Democratic senator, who used to be its governor (Jeanne Shaheen).

* In 2008, Clinton won the New Hampshire primary in stunning fashion, collecting more than 112,000 votes (just over 39 percent of all the votes cast in the primary)

* Sixteen years earlier, her husband, Bill Clinton, finished second behind Sen. Paul Tsongas (Mass.), promptly declared himself "The Comeback Kid" and went on not only to win the Democratic nomination but also the presidency. Clinton carried the Granite State in the 1992 and 1996 general elections as well. "We have a pretty big part of our heart committed to New Hampshire," Clinton told a group of Democrats at an event in the state last April.

* Although Sanders has held a steady — and wide — lead for the past few months, it wasn't always so. In June 2015, when Sanders proclaimed he would win the state, he trailed Clinton by as many as 40 points. As late as November, the two were still neck and neck.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/09/why-hillary-clinton-shouldnt-get-a-pass-on-a-new-hampshire-loss/