VIDEO: GOP Candidates’ Fates on the Line in New Hampshire

Jeb Bush brought his mom and brother out to rally for his cause during the lead-up to Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, but will their combined dynastic powers be enough to keep him in the running for the 2016 presidential contest?

Of course, it’s far from Jeb’s primary to lose — technically, it appears to be on-again, off-again GOP front-runner Donald Trump’s this time, as pre-primary poll numbers have favored Trump by a comfortable margin. Given how well poll data served him in the Iowa caucuses, however, that’s not a conclusion of the foregone variety.

It was, mistakenly, for a moment there on Fox News: The Murdochian network accidentally handed Trump a premature win Tuesday, as Politico was swift to point out. Here’s more of that faux news from Fox News:

Citing every precinct reporting, Fox News’ website accidentally published election results declaring Trump the winner with 28 percent support and 14 delegates.

[…] Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich each shared three delegates, according to the errant Fox results. Rubio garnered 15 percent support, followed by Cruz at 12 percent and Kasich at 11 percent. Chris Christie received 9 percent support and Jeb Bush got 8 percent, while Carly Fiorina finished at 4 percent and Ben Carson at 2 percent. None of them, however, received a single delegate.

Maybe that will help to ease the strained relations (dramatized for beaucoup ratings) between Trump and the GOP-friendly outlet.

But back to reality. The Washington Post took stock of both parties’ prospects that day, as the other Republican candidates once again leveraged more aggressive recruitment tactics than the walking, talking media event leading their pack:

While Trump constrained his campaigning Tuesday morning to doing the rounds of a couple of TV shows, several of his rivals hit the streets to greet voters in a state in which residents often make up their minds at the last minute. Within the space of 2 1/2 hours, three Republican hopefuls — Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida governor Jeb Bush — all stopped by Manchester’s Webster School to chat with voters as they arrived.

In the Democratic race, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) maintained his double-digit lead over former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. After winning only narrowly in Iowa, Clinton braced for defeat while hoping to keep the damage from spilling over into upcoming states where she long has been dominant.

Following tradition, the voting got underway at midnight in some hamlets to kick off the first-in-the-nation primary. The towns delivered mixed verdicts. In tiny Dixville Notch, whose residents have been voting at midnight since 1960, all four Democratic votes went to Sanders. On the Republican side, Ohio Gov. John Kasich received three, and Trump had two.

Speaking of media events, here’s another Trump made all by himself on the eve of the primary, again with the misogynistic flair (via NBC News):

[…] [O]n Monday night, Trump became the first presidential candidate in recent memory to use an epithet for female anatomy to describe a Republican rival on stage at a rally — and he later said it was a “great moment.”

Speaking to about 5,000 people at Manchester’s Verizon Center on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Trump railed against opponents who speak out against his tone. Specifically on waterboarding, Trump contrasted his recent statements on bringing back waterboarding to those of Sen. Ted Cruz.

“You know he’s concerned about the answer because well, some people,” Trump said, pointing to a woman in the crowd, “she just said a terrible thing. You know what she said? Shout it out ’cause I don’t wanna.”

Then he said it anyway: “She said, ‘He’s a p—y.’ “

And with that, American political discourse reached heights beyond Trump Tower’s topmost floor.

Finally, here’s a handy guide, again from The Washington Post, to how candidates can clinch the New Hampshire contest:

–Posted by Kasia Anderson