One day until New Hampshire

 So, Newt Gingrich’s campaign plans to deploy an attack ad (if you can call something half an hour long an ‘ad’) about Mitt Romney’s record as CEO of Bain Capital. The ad focuses on people who lost their homes and jobs as a result of the private equity firm’s activities. You can imagine how some in the Republican Party are responding to an attack on a corporation (which is a person, after all). Unreconstructed neocon Jennifer Rubin has a nine-paragraph screed in the Washington Post full of spittle-flecked rage at Gingrich’s actions (and those of Rick Perry, whose associates were also involved in the making of the ad). “The film is an attack on capitalism…” she writes, accusing Gingrich and Perry of “…anti-capitalistic pandering.” I’ve heard Newt Gingrich called many things, but ‘TEH EV0L SOSHALIST!!!11!’ is one of the funniest.

Political scientist and blogger Jonathan Bernstein is also in the Post, summarising the three main things to look for tomorrow. The first two are the same talking points covered everywhere: the size of Romney’s margin and the force of Santorum’s momentum. His third point piqued my interest, however, because it relates to my critique of the role of the Hawkeye and Granite States in the nomination process. Bernstein wonders whether conservatives will use the over-representation of Romney, Huntsman, and Paul supporters in New Hampshire to force some sort of change in the primary/caucus system. I could see this happening – not in terms of formal, structural reform (a wholesale rearrangement of the primary calendar couldn’t work without the co-operation of both major parties), but it is easy to imagine conservatives downplaying New Hampshire in favour of South Carolina in future electoral cycles.