The One Word Dominating New Hampshire
Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
A FOX News Poll asked New Hampshire Democratic primary voters for their opinions on the most important candidate qualities. The ability to bring about "change" was No. 1 — at 39 percent. That far outpaced "the right experience."
And respondents said Barack Obama was the most likely candidate to bring about that change. He gets 47 percent support — more than double Hillary Clinton at 21 and John Edwards at 16 percent.
That message has not been lost on the candidates — and even the Republicans are all over it. During Saturday night's debates — the top 10 candidates in the two parties mentioned "change" a total of 91 times. The Democrats had a two-to-one margin on the "change" scoreboard — 61-to-30.
Leading the way was Hillary Clinton, who mentioned "change" 25 times, once saying, "I embody change."
John Edwards and Barack Obama came in with 14 "changes" apiece. Bill Richardson mentioned it eight times.
For the Republicans, Mitt Romney led with 10; Rudy Giuliani had nine; Mike Huckabee five; John McCain three; Fred Thompson two, and Ron Paul one.
"Obamamania" is spreading from Iowa to New Hampshire all the way to central Europe.
The International Herald Tribune reports the Illinois senator has become huge in Germany, where he is being compared to the much-loved John F. Kennedy.
The Berliner Morgenpost ran a headline this weekend calling Obama, "The New Kennedy."
The tabloid Bild said, "The Black American Has Become the New Kennedy."
And an editorial in the Frankfurter Rundschau had a headline, "Lincoln, Kennedy, Obama" ... and said that "hope and optimism are the source of the nation's strength."
An inmate in the Pueblo County, Colorado jail who was injured during his second escape, is suing the county and several officials because the jail was not secure enough to prevent him from breaking out.
A local TV station reports Scott Anthony Gomez Jr. says he told the sheriff after his first brief escape that security was weak. But no improvements were made, so he tried it again. He says the cell doors in his maximum security wing were easy to open and he was able to loosen a tile in a shower ceiling because a guard did not check on him for an hour.
Gomez climbed through the ceiling, but then fell 40-feet while trying to scale the outside wall.
— FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.