barack obama falls flat on his nose in the 2012 new hampshire presidential primary election ... the democrats do not appear to be rallying to his support ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_Democratic_primary,_2012 .  in the democratic party presidential primary in new hampshire, barack "the one and true hussein" obama received 45,008 votes, amounting to 81.9% of the qualifying democratic candidates.

http://elections.msnbc.msn.com/ns/politics/2012/new-hampshire/republican/primary/#.Tw31nqV-wTY .  in the republican party presidential primary, held the same date in new hampshire, mitt romney received 97,532 votes, (42,000 more votes than obama, all by himself) amounting to 39% of the ballots cast for the qualifying republican candidates.

ron paul received a further 56,848 votes, (roughly 11,000 more votes than obama) amounting to 23% of the republican ballot.  john huntsman received 41,945 votes, or 17% of the ballot.

democrats voting in the new hampshire presidential primary were 54,940.

republicans voting in the new hampshire presidential primary were 221,851.

how does this compare with previous new hampshire presidential primaries.  wikipedia provides a quick answer.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_primary .

2004 primary.   john kerry was the democratic front runner in 2004, garnering 84,390 of 219,737 votes cast by democrats.  george bush received 53,962 out of 67,833 votes cast by republicans.

2000 primary.   al gore was the democratic front runner in 2000, garnering 76,897 of 154,639 votes cast by democrats.  john mccain received 115,490 & george bush received 72,262 out of the 236,802 votes cast by republicans.

the 2008 presidential primary is revealing.  in 2008 a record turnout of new hampshire voters cast a record 529,542 votes, out of a total of 850,000 or so registered voters.  this is almost twice the total votes cast this year.

both party races were contested that year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_Republican_primary,_2008 .  john mccain took 88,571 of the 234,851 of the republican votes cast.  that was 37.71% of the republican votes cast, while mitt romney garnered 32.17% of those votes, or 75,546 of the republican total.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_Democratic_primary,_2008 .  hilary clinton took 112,404 of the 287,527 of the democratic votes cast.  that was 39.09% of the democratic votes cast, while barack "the one and true hussein" obama 36.45% of those votes, or 104,815 of the democratic total.

in 2012, 221,851 republicans voted in the presidential primary. in 2008, 234,851 republicans cast their ballots in the republican primary.  

in 2012, 54,940 democrats voted in the presidential primary.  in 2008, 287,527 democrats cast their ballots in the democratic primary.

it is hard to say just what this raw data indicates, and much good verbiage will be spilled in the next several days arguing over just what it all means, what it all portends.  a lot of breastbeating, thumping, wailing and exhortation will be expended about the implications of the vote for barack obama.  no doubt, some will argue that democrats may not have turned out because they are confident of the outcome of the process.

it seems to me, however, that it will be hard to sustain an argument that it shows a lot of democratic support for a failed president.  

call it what you will, this was no show of strength by barack obama, in any stretch of the imagination.  or rhetoric.  or cant.   and, it was certainly no indication that democrats are willing to enthusiastically work for obama.  what can be said with certainty, is that the democrats stayed away in droves.

it's early, and there remains a lot of water to flow under the bridge, & down the loo.  but, obama is certainly not off to a rousing start, and no amount of "spin" will alter that truth.  there is no joy in mudville this night, for the mighty obama whiffed.  and, a few more primary "showings" like this, and the democrats are going to put others forward into the primaries, in an effort to dump their flag bearer.  this was no show of force by the demo's, no gunboat diplomacy here.

this was genuine weakness.

john jay @ 01.11.2011

p.s.  see, http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/09/politics/pol-nh-obama/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_politics .  the headline said the obama campaign wanted to generate some "buzz."  i don't think they worked up very much "buzz," do you?