What New Hampshire Means to Paul's Campaign

Last night Paul received 8% of the vote in the NH primaries, after last week receiving 10% in Iowa. The two results, despite close numbers, mean different things. In Iowa, it showed that Paul could beat a "front-runner" like Giuliani and was therefore a formidable competitor. In New Hampshire, the results show that Paul is right alongside "front-runners" Huckabee and Giuliani (who both received more votes than Paul, but all three stayed within 3% of each other). McCain, the winner in NH, only received 3% more votes than Paul in Iowa.

What does all this mean? The Republican party is fractured. A number like 10% sounds low, but when the overall winner is lucky to reach 35%, 10% is actually really high. The Iowa and New Hampshire results show that Paul has a real chance in this election, but he needs to pick up some key states to get his delegate numbers up.