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CNN Larry King Live

Results of the New Hampshire Primaries

Aired January 08, 2008 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(CROSS TALK)
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you for being with us. Here's Larry King. Good night.

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Lou, I think. Good evening. Huge wins tonight for Hillary Clinton and John McCain in New Hampshire, despite a surge in the polls over the past few days for Barack Obama. Senator Clinton pulled out a narrow victory to get her campaign back on track.

And New Hampshire was good to Senator McCain again. He beat out George Bush in 2000, won easily this time, with Mitt Romney coming in a distant second. We've got all the latest with candidates and pundits next on this special Eastern edition of LARRY KING LIVE, a midnight edition in the east, 9:00 p.m. here in the West.

We start with our outstanding panel of experts. Let's begin with Bob Woodward, our Pulitzer Prize winning journalist with the "Washington Post." Robert, how surprised are you?

ROBERT WOODWARD, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Totally. I'm trying to think of what the four winners, the two in Iowa and the two tonight in New Hampshire, have in common. And the only thing they have in common is that they've all been written off at one point or another. And maybe it's the voters just have sympathy for people who get written off and they look at, say, particularly Hillary Clinton, there's such a sense that it's over. In fact, I wrote out talking points tonight before the real numbers came in. And one of them was dynastic fatigue, believing that people didn't want her.

Well, that's totally wrong. So people haven't decided yet. And I think there is -- she said something very important tonight in her speech, that she found her voice. And of course, her voice is going out and actually talking to people and not hiding in that bubble anymore and answering questions.

KING: We'll show how off the polls were. We'll ask this of Candy Crowley. We had -- a CNN poll had ten points ahead for Obama. That's with voters surveyed last Saturday and Sunday. Obama led among women by three points.

Here's the exit polls tonight, Clinton 47 percent, Obama 34 percent, 13 percent for women in favor of Hillary. What happened?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, here's what the Clinton camp says happened; they say that in Iowa, they went after women, the 50 and older set. This time, they tried to go across the board. They made an effort to reach out in places where the women were younger. They still believe that the idea of an historic presidency, a woman in the White House, is appealing to a number of women who A, haven't voted before, or B, have been waiting for this kind of glass ceiling to shatter.

So they've really made an outreach to women across the board. As you know, in Iowa, the greatest strength of Obama among women was the younger set. So they say this is something, in fact, that Hillary Clinton said coming out of Iowa, saying we've got to make a bigger effort to reach out to younger voters.

KING: Chris Cillizza writes "The Fix" column for the "Washington Post," the politics blog for The Post. It's dot com. You can contact him there. Chris is very adept at reading the political game. How well did you read tonight?

CHRIS CILLIZZA, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Thanks for that intro, Larry. Not all that well, to be honest. I think what we all do in this business, and I think Bob and Candy touched on it, is we look at the polling, we spend time on the ground -- I was up in New Hampshire for four days. I flew back yesterday. I was at a huge Obama rally, Nashua North High School. The line outside before the event started must have been a half mile, even a mile long in cold weather.

I went up and asked the first person in line what time did you get there. The man told me 7:30 in the morning for a 10:00 event. That reminded me of a rock concert kind of feel to the Obama campaign. And I think all of the empirical evidence, polls, excitement on the ground, everything pointed to an Obama victory. Everything we're hearing from the Clinton campaign, as Candy touched on, I don't think it was lowering expectations, frankly. I think they really believed that they were not going to win this race and that they had to try and find a way -- and I don't think they had found it -- but try and find a way to re-image her for these February 5th states, when big states like California and Georgia are going to be voting.

But they didn't have an answer. They were, I think, frankly, as shocked as all of us sitting around tonight were when they first saw these returns rolling in.

KING: Mitch Halperin, anything shocking in McCain? Mitch Halperin is the editor at large, senior political analyst for "Time Magazine."

MARK HALPERIN, "TIME MAGAZINE": Certainly not by the end. I think for the last couple weeks he's been the favorite in this state. But it's quite a comeback for someone who was written off by a lot of our colleagues, Larry. I think in the end Senator McCain is two for two in this primary. The state likes him here.

And while the immigration and the Iraq war hurt him a lot earlier in the year, for the last few days, since the Iowa caucuses, going to his events, town meetings -- I went to a couple of them -- they were exactly like 2000, the way he handled the crowd, the feelings towards him, not just from veterans, but from all people here in New Hampshire who went to his town meetings, of respect and admiration.

He did very strong and I think he leaves this state not just as the winner of the New Hampshire primary, but as the front-runner for the party's nomination. I think if he's able to win Michigan, he's going to be hard to stop for this nomination.

KING: Forgive me, I said Mitch. It's Mark Halperin, of course. Speaking of McCain's victory tonight, let's talk with Senator Lindsay Graham.

We now go to Nashua, New Hampshire and send a very happy Lindsay Graham, the Republican of South Carolina, a long-time supporter of John McCain. Any surprise in this victory?

SEN. LINDSAY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: To be honest with you, it exceeded my expectations. I'm just proud of John and all the people that helped him and believed in him. So he needed to win and he did. And the closer you got to the election, Larry, the more people looked under the hood of the candidates, the more momentum John received.

And I think this is really a rebirth of his campaign. And I look forward to going to Michigan and South Carolina with him.

KING: So this was a case of him winning, not others losing it?

GRAHAM: Yes, I think so. I think, if you look at the polls, we won among Republicans and independents. Yes, that's a good way of saying it. It really pleases me that he won it by talking about what he believes. No negative advertising. He fought back with one ad against what was said about him. But he has a very positive campaign.

Iowa tells us that positive campaigning wins. New Hampshire says positive campaigning wins. And both positive campaigns win over money. That's a good story for America.

KING: In your state back in 2000, I moderated that now historic debate between Bush and McCain. And McCain had won in New Hampshire and come down to South Carolina and he was devastated in South Carolina. Can that happen to him again?

GRAHAM: It's a totally different dynamic but we got killed. President Bush was a better candidate, to be honest with you. But John is better prepared. And the issues are different. We're in two wars. The guard and reserve in South Carolina has been deployed a tremendous amount. And the people of South Carolina, the Republican primary particularly, really do want to pick a commander in chief that can lead us to victory.

We've got half of the state house Republicans. We've got the speaker of the house, the attorney general, the adjutant general, head of the National Guard, elected. We've got a really deep team and the issues are at different. We're at war. So I like our chances. I think we'll do very well

KING: Whom, Lindsey, do you worry about the most? GRAHAM: Well, I think Governor Huckabee will resonate in my state, Fred Thompson. But here's what I hope will happen, that you come to my state and you tell the people of South Carolina, here's why I want to be president; here's my vision for the future. If that happens, we all win. It's going to be a referendum, in my opinion, Larry, on who can lead the Republican back to its basic principles, the Ronald Reagan principles of lower taxes and controlling spending.

But the dominant issue, I think, will be who is the best commander in chief candidate to lead the nation at war? And in that regard, I am not worried about anybody else, because I have so much confidence in John. I just hope it's a positive campaign for the sake of the country.

KING: Is your guy now the comeback kid?

GRAHAM: As John said, kid probably doesn't apply to John. I think the people of South Carolina -- I mean, of New Hampshire -- didn't want to see him leave. His message resonated. He spoke the truth. He spoke it in a positive way. He told people what he believed, not always what they wanted to hear. And, yes, Larry, John McCain is viable for all the right reasons and I'm glad to be his friend.

KING: Always good seeing you. Thanks, senator. We'll see you a lot down the road.

GRAHAM: You better believe it. Come to South Carolina.

KING: Senator Lindsay Graham, Republican of South Carolina. Lots more of this special edition of LARRY KING LIVE, the midnight Eastern edition, 9:00 p.m. Pacific. Lots more right after this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Enjoy this. You have earned it more than me. Tomorrow we begin again. Thank you.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Over the last week, I listened to you, and in the process, I found my own voice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Before we check back with Bob Woodward and Chris Cillizza and Mark Halperin, let's check in with some of the members of the best political team in broadcasting, John King, Wolf Blitzer and Roland Martin. John King, watching this, did you know early on this was Hillary's night?

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: God no, Larry. I knew early on that the results weren't coming in a way that was consistent with the pre- polling. Then what do you do? You go precinct by precinct and look at how the votes are coming in. And what we saw early on was -- this is worth remembering as we go forward into other states. New Hampshire is not a big state but it has two cities, Manchester being the biggest city, where you have traditional blue collar gritty Democratic voters.

That has always been Hillary Clinton's strength, lower/middle class voters, the blue collar people. They're the people that helped John Kerry beat Howard Dean four years ago and they're the people that helped Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama tonight. That's worth watching as we go forward, blue collar unions, the people in cities. Not only did she prove she can get their votes; she proved she could turn them out with a very good ground operation.

The people she had working for her there know New Hampshire like the back of their hands. They can do it in their sleep. Can she do that in the other states as this race moves on? That's a big question.

KING: By the way, John, you did a great job of breaking down the state of New Hampshire tonight?

KING: Thank you, Larry.

KING: Wolf Blitzer, is this a case now of the poll takers being the spin masters?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: It's a dangerous business being a pollster, if you will, because you never know what's going to happen. You take a sample of 600 people, 900 people, 1,000 people, you have a plus or minus three or five percent margin of error, and you try to come up with some examples. You try to be precise. Often the polls are pretty reliable but not always. And tonight clearly they weren't all that reliable, even the so-called poll of polls that we like to talk about, you average out all the major polls and you see what you get.

It can be a risky sort of business, as was pretty clear. I think what really helped Hillary Clinton make this comeback out of Iowa tonight was that we saw a softer side of her yesterday when her eyes welled up. She didn't cry but she got close. She got emotional. She's been under enormous pressure and she showed a very human side, one that a lot of people could relate to. And I think we're going to see more of that, Larry.

The advice she's been given over the past 24, 48, 72 hours is, you can't be a robot. Let Hillary Clinton be Hillary Clinton. Just be yourself. Show the people what you're really made of. Show that human side of you and it will pay off and it clearly did in New Hampshire.

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Larry?

KING: Yes?

MARTIN: I would love to defend the pollsters for a second here. The pollsters had Obama leading Clinton by three percent among women. Exit polls today show Clinton beating him by 13 percent among women. Pollsters also showed him winning the young voters, those demographics. Out of the six demographic groups, Clinton wins four out of the six. Obama only beats her by two.

But here's the most important thing, I think; some 250,000 people or so voted in New Hampshire. Fifteen percent of those people voted today. That means you had 40,000 plus people who made a decision the last second. The polls don't reflect that. She won by 6,000. Of course, my math teacher at Jack Hanes High School in Houston is probably like, he hated math, what is he doing. I simply think the last-minute voters looked at -- Clinton campaigned to the last second, her getting emotional yesterday, all of a sudden you see the shift. And I think that's what we saw.

The most recent poll showed him winning and the bottom line is, new people came out and made a last-minute choice.

KING: Your math teacher would be proud of you.

MARTIN: Even though I didn't do good there or at Texas A&M. But it's all good.

KING: When we come back, we'll talk with Ann Lewis, one of the chief advisers to Hillary Clinton, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back. A little earlier, I spoke with a key Clinton adviser. Watch.

We welcome Ann Lewis to LARRY KING LIVE, senior adviser to the Hillary Clinton campaign and old friend. She was the communications director in the Clinton White House. In all honesty, Ann, are you surprised at what happened tonight?

ANN LEWIS, CLINTON CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: Well, I'm a little bit surprised with the final numbers, Larry, but I have to say, we felt the momentum growing and building in the last three days in New Hampshire. Everywhere Hillary went, she was getting just tremendous crowds. The response from people was so good, whether you talked to people on the street or you went out to their homes, you talked to people in the crowd.

We knew she was connecting with people. They really liked what she had to say. So we knew it was moving in our direction

KING: So when you looked at the polls, what did you think?

LEWIS: What we thought was, we've got to reach more people. We've got to do a better job of talking with them. We know we have a strong message. We've got to make it clear, first, if you want to know what kind of president Hillary Clinton will be, we want you to look at what she's down throughout her life? You want to know what kind of changes she will make? Look at the changes she's already made.

And then we connected that directly with people's lives here in New Hampshire. We talked about the 7,000 children in New Hampshire who have children's health insurance today because Hillary Clinton fought for it. We talked about the 2,700 National Guard young women and men who have health care because Hillary Clinton stood up to the Pentagon and got them the health care they deserve.

Over and over, on the issues that make a difference to our families and our future, Hillary Clinton's been out there working it, fighting for it, making a difference; and that's what people want in their leader.

KING: Compare her feelings tonight to, say, her feelings last night.

LEWIS: Well, I'd say Hillary knew last night that things were going in the right direction. People don't always know what a good politician she is. But she's been out campaigning for a long time, and she said, I can tell I'm connecting with people. I can tell from the crowds. I can tell from the look in their eyes. I can tell from the response. She said, I don't know if we have enough time to go all the way. But I know this is what we have to do.

KING: Has she been surprised, frankly, by the onslaught of Barack Obama?

LEWIS: I think a number of people -- and I wouldn't speak for Hillary right now -- were somewhat surprised by some of the recent results. But after we thought about it for a while, we thought, that makes sense. We should never underestimate how much people want a change and how well he was able to communicate to them the kinds of changes he was going to stand for.

So it was -- as you thought about it, that's a powerful message at a time -- you know this Larry, the American people are so fed up with the way the things are going. They so much want to change the direction of our country.

KING: Ann, we'll be seeing a lot of you down the road. Good to see you.

LEWIS: You'll be seeing me but you're also going to be seeing me on the road, Larry, because we go from here to Nevada. We're going to be in South Carolina. As you know, we have 21 states on February 5th. This is a national election. We're going to be campaigning at every one of them.

KING: Thank you, Ann.

LEWIS: Thank you, Larry.

KING: Bob Woodward, are you surprised the poor showing of Mitt Romney tonight?

WOODWARD: Probably not because I think there's a theme in all of this. And it has to do with one of my favorite subjects, which is secrecy. The candidates who won are McCain and Hillary. And McCain, of course, is Mr. Transparency. You can go on his bus and talk to him for hours, straight talk, the directness. He talked about honesty tonight. And I think Senator Clinton's message really, in the last several days, is not the details that Ann Lewis is talking about, but the message really was her availability, that she was out answering questions in a way that she never did in this campaign. It has been well-documented, people could not interview her. Voters could not talk to her.

And she opened herself up in a way -- I think that was the message. And so we -- it's good for our business. It's good for voters. They're going to be able to learn more about these people. I think you're going to see a kind of continuous town meeting and interviewing process going on. And the payoff, at least tonight, is victory.

KING: Chris, what do you see? What's your read on Romney?

CILLIZZA: If Bob's -- one of Bob's favorite words is secrecy, mine is authenticity, at least in this campaign. What I think you saw in both Iowa and New Hampshire on the Republican side is the for authentic candidate, the candidate that was perceived as more genuine, more real is the candidate that won. Mike Huckabee said, explaining his win in Iowa, that people like to vote for the co-worker, not the guy that fired him, making a very direct comparison to Mitt Romney.

And I think Bob's right in New Hampshire. John McCain, in the darkest period of his campaign, in late August, he was out of money, his senior staff was leaving, he went to New Hampshire, the place where he knew voters still had an affinity for him. And what he said is, I'm going to shoot straight with you; I'm going to be honest with you; I'm going to tell it like it is, hearkening back to the Straight Talk of 2000 that really, really won him a lot of supporters. And I think voters responded to that.

The problem for Mitt Romney -- it was a problem in Iowa. It's a problem in New Hampshire. I think it will be a problem in Michigan and beyond. Voters do not have a sense that he is authentic. They look at some of the positions that he's changed, mostly on abortion, where he was in support of abortion rights, is now adamantly opposed, and they wonder what is at this man's core? Voters want to feel like they know what's at your core. And with McCain and Huckabee, I think voters feel like they know that. And with Romney, voters still can't get a sense for it and that's a problem for him.

KING: We're going to speak with Mr. Huckabee right after the next break. We'll check in with Candy Crowley. Mark Halperin, what about Huckabee? Where do you see him now?

HALPERIN: Well, I think South Carolina is the place where he's going to have to take on John McCain and anyone else who's still in this race. He's going to be the strongest southerner in this race, although Senator Thompson chose to spend tonight not here in New Hampshire, but making a head start in South Carolina.

So South Carolina's going to be important, potential last stand for Huckabee, potential last stand for Fred Thompson. That may benefit John McCain because he'll be going up against two southerners, who are largely trying to appeal -- not entirely -- but largely trying to appeal to the same vote.

SO Mike Huckabee's win in Iowa should not be discounted. This is a wide-open race. Again, I think if John McCain is able to win Michigan, he'll go into South Carolina as the favorite.

KING: Back with lots more of our coverage, including a talk with Mr. Huckabee, right after these words. Don't go away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My friends, I'm past the age when I can claim the noun kid no matter what adjective precedes it. But tonight we surely showed them what a comeback looks like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: A little earlier I spoke with the former governor of Arkansas. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING: With us is Governor Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas. He won in Iowa. He finished third tonight in New Hampshire.

Surprised?

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Pleasantly, Larry. We were really wanting to be here because just about three weeks ago, even two weeks ago, I think we were like in sixth place and a lot of people were advising us to just bypass New Hampshire, forget about it, head to South Carolina.

We made the right call. We came here. Third place for us is like a win for us because that puts us with a medal on our chest on to South Carolina where we'll be tomorrow. And we're running first there, first in Florida, first or tied for first in Michigan.

So we're going to be playing in all three of those states and we expect to do well if not win them.

KING: Was this a bad night for Mitt Romney?

HUCKABEE: I don't see how he can see it any other way. I mean, he spent an enormous amount of money here. He has had a home here. He governed to the state just to the south of here. He ran as many television ads here against John McCain as he did against me in Iowa, and still couldn't come up and close the distance and close the sale.

So it has got to be a disappointing night for him. On the other hand, for us, it was a great night. We exceeded our expectations. We've been doing that all along and we'd like to kind of keep doing that. KING: Are you saying it's now Huckabee and McCain?

HUCKABEE: Well, clearly, Mitt Romney has got the personal money that most of us don't have. So he can continue to play regardless of the results of the election. And I expect he will for quite some time.

But the momentum, I think, is clearly with John McCain and with me. And what I hope is that after we finish in these next three states, it's with me.

KING: All right. Let's say you do great in South Carolina and Michigan, as stated. Do you have the resources for Super Tuesday?

HUCKABEE: Yes, we do. In fact, one of the things that has happened, people who really loved my message and thought that I was the guy that could put this Republican Party back together, give it new vision, broaden the tent, get new people in it, give it a vision, they just weren't sure that I could actually win.

Well, now they say, not only he can win, but I think he will. So it's a whole different operation for us. And, Larry, because we've run our campaign in such a frugal manner, we don't have the overhead a lot of these guys have. So we can be much more nimble, operate with a great deal more of efficiency -- if we don't kill all the people on our staff who are, every one of them, doing two and three jobs.

But we've been running on the kind of energy and excitement and adrenaline that we get because we're getting volunteers doing stuff for us we couldn't afford to pay them no matter what the cost was.

KING: And any thoughts on the contest between Obama and Clinton tonight?

HUCKABEE: Well, I think it shows that just like the Republican field, it is far from settled. The same thing is true in the Democratic field. It's a long, long process. Everybody has thought this thing was going to be over in a couple of contests. I think many of us in the middle of it genuinely thought it was going to go a little longer than that.

KING: As always, thank you, Governor. We'll be seeing you in and around South Carolina.

HUCKABEE: Looking forward to it, Larry. Thanks again. It's always a pleasure to do your program.

KING: My pleasure, too. Governor Mike Huckabee, finishing third tonight. But he says it is a victory in a sense.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Candy Crowley, do you agree with Governor Huckabee? Does he still sit strong?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I agree that he certainly has life going out of here. I mean, he is absolutely right that he was nowhere in the polls before his Iowa victory. He's going to a friendly place after Michigan, and that's South Carolina.

I mean, clearly, there is a huge portion of the Republican vote there that is evangelical, those are the same people who put Huckabee into first in Iowa. So he has got some friendly territory ahead. The wind is still behind him, but he's going to have a stiff challenge obviously from John McCain. So at this point, I think he's right. He's still very much in the mix.

KING: Thanks very much, Candy. We'll be checking with you along the way. Candy Crowley, one of the best reporters in the business.

John King, where's Obama now?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are going to learn, this is testing time, Larry. When you win, you're tested, and when you lose, you're tested. He couldn't deliver on his Iowa momentum in New Hampshire. So now he couldn't do checkers. What Obama wanted to do was have momentum. You win the first one, you win the second one, then it's bing-bam-boom, king me.

Well, he's not going to get that. So now he's going to have play chess in that very crowded calendar. And as we mentioned earlier, some of the primaries ahead -- many of the primaries ahead are only Democrats. Some states allow the independents to come in. That always benefits Obama. But in a lot of these states, they're called closed primaries. It's Democrats only

He's going to have to broaden his base. He's getting the Howard Dean base of the party right now, the more liberal, upper income, some would say the elite Democrats. He has to start getting more lunch- bucket Democrats. He's a guy from the streets of Chicago. He knows who these people are. But he has to find people in other places and he has to convince them, I'm one of you, I understand your issues.

As I said, he used to be a community organizer, so he knows how to meet these people. But right now, that's not his base. And Hillary Clinton, that's why she beat him in New Hampshire tonight. She got the blue collar Democrats, traditional Democrats to come out. That was her margin of victory. Barack Obama has to be looking at those numbers tonight and saying, OK, I've got to go get them.

KING: Wolf, Senator Edwards will be with us in a couple of moments. Is he still a factor?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, he's still a factor. He has got a strong following out there. He came in second by a hair in Iowa. Came in third -- I'm sure it's a disappointing third, in New Hampshire. But he has still got a following out there. He's passionate. You heard him say he's not going anywhere. He's in this fight. He is going to continue on to Nevada and South Carolina and beyond.

South Carolina, he does have a base. He was born in South Carolina, raised in North Carolina. So he has some support out there and he has got a message that he's delivering. I wouldn't rule him out by any means. He has got a struggle ahead of him, there's no doubt about that. I'm sure he would have loved to have come in first or second in New Hampshire. Didn't happen for him. But he's staying in this race at least for now.

More interestingly right now is what about Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico? He stayed in after Chris Dodd dropped out, after Joe Biden dropped out, after Iowa, he's still in. But right now we're told he's going back to New Mexico to take a look at what's going on -- he's the governor there, and to reassess what he should do next.

He came in a very, very disappointing fourth place in New Hampshire right now, very small percentage, what, 4, maybe 5 percent of the vote. So he has got to take a really close, hard look at where he goes next.

KING: We'll take a break and then check in with Roland Martin and also talk with Governor Edwards -- with Senator Edwards, rather, right after this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But whether we are rich or poor, black or white, Latino or Asian, whether we hail from Iowa or New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina, we are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction. That's what's happening in America right now. Change is what's happening in America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: A couple of moments ago, I spent some time with the former senator from North Carolina. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: We're with Senator John Edwards, the 2008 Democratic presidential candidate.

You finished third tonight in New Hampshire, second in Iowa. How do you feel?

JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I feel good, Larry. We finished a strong second in Iowa. Then we came here to New Hampshire against a very tough competition and a lot of money. And what's clear from tonight is this race is wide open.

What I have said is because of this cause of these calls of speaking up for people who don't have a voice, and because over 99 percent of America hasn't voted yet, I'm in this thing for the long haul.

KING: You're not discouraged at all? EDWARDS: Oh no, far from it. I mean, the fact that my message could be heard through the glitz and the money that has been arrayed on the other side is actually pretty amazing. And I'm also -- as you can tell by watching, I'm enjoying this. I love what I'm doing. I love giving voice to the middle class and to working people and all the things that I believe in.

KING: Is it tough, though, when the Obama/Clinton thing gets so much attention?

EDWARDS: It's tough to get heard. It doesn't make it tough for what I'm doing. I mean, I know what I stand for. I know what I'm fighting for. I'm fighting for the middle class and jobs and speaking out for the poor and the uninsured in this country. That's what my life is about. But it is hard sometimes to get through the noise.

But here's what happened tonight, Larry. What happened tonight is New Hampshire voters turned this thing on its ear and said, this is going to be a long-term race. And we haven't had a race like this in a long time in America. I mean, there are three of us who are very serious contenders.

I was second in Iowa, third here. All of us are getting a significant percentage of the vote. I mean, this thing is going to go on a long time. And I'm in it to the convention and the White House.

KING: Were you surprised at Senator Clinton's showing tonight?

EDWARDS: I was. To be honest with you, I was. And I called her and congratulated her. It looked like there was this Obama juggernaut that couldn't be stopped and it got stopped tonight. And we've got a real contest going on, which is actually very good for my campaign.

KING: Should you win in South Carolina?

EDWARDS: Well, it remains to be seen. I won it, as you know, in 2004. I was born there. I've got a lot of support there. I'm going there tomorrow. I have a lot of confidence in how I can do there. But it's going to be a tough fight and we'll see.

KING: You served with Senator McCain in the Senate. What did you think of his victory tonight?

EDWARDS: Congratulations to John McCain. I got to see him at the debate on Saturday night because they debated just before we did. I hadn't seen him in a while. Congratulated him.

You know, this is a -- what's happening with him is the perfect example of what could easily happen in the next few months. As you know, Larry, he had literally been written off several months ago. The national media wrote him off, everybody said, you don't have a chance.

And I was saying to everyone, you guys are making a mistake, this guy has got some guts and determination and he's going to keep fighting. And all of a sudden he came out of nowhere. And he's in a very strong position now.

KING: So what you're saying, Senator, is, it's going to be a hell of a year?

EDWARDS: It's going to a great year. And we're going to have fun. We've got 99 percent of America hasn't voted yet. I think this is extremely good for this democracy, for everybody's voices to be heard, that we just don't decide this thing in two states, that everybody is going to be heard in this process.

KING: Always good seeing you, John. Safe trip home.

EDWARDS: Thank you, Larry. Great to be with you.

KING: John Edwards, still in the hunt.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: When we come back, Paul Cellucci, the former governor of Massachusetts, who's supporting Rudy Giuliani, by the way. Checking in with our panel as well. Don't go away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I felt like we all spoke from our hearts and I am so gratified that you responded. Now, together, let's give America the kind of comeback that New Hampshire has just given me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Let's go to WMUR in Manchester, New Hampshire, spend a couple of moments with Paul Cellucci, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts who's supporting Rudy Giuliani.

The Giuliani strategy of waiting for Florida, what do you make of it?

PAUL CELLUCCI (R), FMR. MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR: Well, I think it looks better and better every day, Larry. The big danger to that strategy was Mitt Romney winning big in Iowa and winning big in New Hampshire, which a few weeks ago, a lot of people thought that would happen. That danger has now passed.

We effectively have a national primary on February 5th, 22 states, a lot of big states, a lot of winner-take-all states. And Mayor Giuliani has saved his resources for February 5th and Florida. He has already been to Florida and those February 5th states. He's running ahead in many of those states. And the biggest prize on February 5th, winner-take-all, is 101 delegates in New York State.

So we think this race is unsettled. We have had two winners so far, three if you count the Wyoming Caucuses. And we think it's setting up quite well for the mayor. We think that in these states, in this national primary, people are going to ask a couple of questions.

One, who can we trust to keep America safe? And I think the people of this country know in their hearts that Rudy Giuliani will keep us on the offense against terror. And I think another question that the voters will ask of all the candidates is, how will this person -- this candidate react in a crisis?

A crisis can occur at any moment, as we saw a couple of weeks ago in Pakistan. And we saw Rudy Giuliani tested on September 11th and he was a strong, focused, compassionate leader. He led New York City through horrible days and helped lead our country through those horrible days.

He has been tested under fire. And we know that about Rudy Giuliani. We don't know it about the other candidates.

KING: We'll be calling on you a lot, Governor. Thanks so much for your thoughts. Let's check in with a prominent...

CELLUCCI: Thanks, Larry.

KING: ... Romney -- my pleasure. Romney campaign spokesman, Kevin Madden. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING: We go to Bedford, New Hampshire, at the Romney event tonight. Kevin Madden joins us, a campaign spokesman for Governor Romney.

How disappointed are you, Kevin?

KEVIN MADDEN, ROMNEY CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN: Oh, we're very proud of the race we ran, Larry. This was a testament to the governor's positive message and the governor really going out there and building up support over the last year here in New Hampshire.

And we got a silver medal tonight, we got a silver medal in Iowa, we got a gold medal in Wyoming. And we're really looking forward to getting to Michigan and South Carolina and Florida and just bringing home this nomination, as Governor Romney continues to talk about what he's going to do to lead the party and change Washington.

KING: By all logic, though, Kevin, if you look back in history, shouldn't the governor or a senator from a neighboring state, Massachusetts, win New Hampshire?

MADDEN: Well, look, I don't think voters in New Hampshire are going to vote because of proximity of a governor next door. Voters are going to vote on issues. And what we're looking at right now is a contest for the Republican nomination across 50 states.

So you know, we feel that we've built up a great deal of cumulative support in places like Iowa and New Hampshire. So we had the first two contests there. We had the contest in Wyoming where Governor Romney did very well there. And now what we do is we go on to these other primary states. We go on to Michigan. We go on to South Carolina, take that message to Florida and then February 5th.

And Governor Romney will still be in a position to make the case that he's the best person to bring together economic conservatives, social conservatives and national security conservatives and lead the party.

KING: Do you think at all that Senator McCain and Governor Huckabee ganged up on your candidate?

MADDEN: No, you know, I think that this was fundamentally a contest of ideas. It was a contest of each candidate's message across these last few weeks and these last contests. I think that what the result out of these first three contests in Iowa and New Hampshire and Wyoming is that Governor Romney has probably the best level of support across geographical locations, as well as across the full spectrum of Republicans that are now deciding the nomination.

KING: What's his mood, Kevin? You can never feel good losing. He has got the wherewithal to stay in forever. How is he feeling?

MADDEN: Governor Romney is -- he is an optimist. He's a happy warrior. So we feel very enthused by the good showing that we had here tonight. We couple that with the good showing that we had in Iowa and Wyoming, and the fact that we're building up support essentially from zero.

Larry, you know, you go -- let's go back and look at the national polls and all the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire and Michigan early on in this campaign, when we announced in February. Governor Romney was virtually unknown across the country.

Right now, we've built up to a level of support where we're going to be competitive across these early primary states, and on towards the nomination. So Governor Romney has felt very enthusiastic with the level of support we've gotten in all of these early primary states. And he is feeling good about the prospects as we move forward.

KING: Give him our best, thanks, Kevin.

MADDEN: Will do, Larry. Thanks, great to be with you.

KING: Always good to see you. Kevin Madden of the Romney campaign.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: And when we come back, we will have the final thoughts of Bob Woodward, Chris Cillizza, and Roland Martin on this very special edition of LARRY KING LIVE. Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Let's get final thoughts from our distinguished panelists, those that are left.

Bob Woodward, What's the headline?

BOB WOODWARD, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, obviously, big deal for Hillary Clinton, but let me just point out this. If you ask Democrats privately, what do you fear most? The answer is, John McCain. That McCain -- we were talking earlier about transparency and openness, "straight talk," Chris was talking about the important notion, personal characteristic of authenticity.

McCain has even something more, and that is -- and this is Democrats talking privately, moral authority. And with the moral authority of his background, his kind of unflinching backing in the Iraq War, not just of the surge, but at the beginning when he -- McCain diagnosed the problem in the war. We didn't have enough troops from the beginning. And he kept hammering on that.

So there's a certain consistency, moral authority, carries a lot of weight.

KING: Roland, what's your headline? Of the two weeks put together, what's the story?

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Obama wins by 9 in Iowa. Clinton wins by 2 in New Hampshire. So the question is, how is Obama going to respond? Of course, we have Nevada coming up on Saturday. But the real issue is that there is a huge gap between Nevada and South Carolina. That is going to be an ugly, down-and-dirty campaign.

So the question, how negative does the Clinton campaign go? And again, how hard will Obama respond? He lost to Congressman Bobby Rush. He responded with his win in the U.S. Senate. He said he learned from it. We'll see what he learned from the loss tonight.

KING: What happens in Michigan next week, Chris?

CHRIS CILLIZZA, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, you know, Larry, I think what you see on the Republican side is Mitt Romney's last stand. Despite what Kevin Madden, we just heard from, said, if Mitt Romney cannot win in Michigan -- remember, this is the state he was born in, this is the state his father served as the governor of. It's a state he spent money on television ads already. It's a state he has visited quite a bit. If he can't win there, I do think it becomes difficult.

And never forget, the two states that John McCain won in the 2000 presidential primary process against George W. Bush, New Hampshire and Michigan, independents can vote. They've already shown -- voters in Michigan have, an affinity for John McCain and he's coming off a win here.

I just think if Mitt Romney comes up short again, the word -- in the word "winner" is the word "win." And if you don't win at some point, you're not going to be the winner.

KING: Bob, are we much too far away -- much too far away from predicting who will be on the ballot in November?

WOODWARD: There's no way to tell. And of course, we all have mud on our faces in the predicting business, in the polling business and this sense of certainty and momentum and inevitability. And it's garbage. What is key here, the voters who are independent-minded, who are, in many cases, undecided, and in a more important way, are persuadable.

And what they're doing is they're listening to the candidates and they go one way and then they go another way. And that's the process as it should be. And it's quite possible -- I mean, on February 5th, after Super-duper Tuesday, it will still be a mixed bag.

MARTIN: Hey, Larry, big question, will Al Gore, will he endorse? You don't know. That could affect February 5th.

KING: Thank you all very much, Bob Woodward, Chris Cillizza, and Roland Martin, on this special edition of LARRY KING LIVE, aired at midnight Eastern, 9:00 Pacific.

Don't go away now. There's more on the New Hampshire Primary coming your way, right now on CNN. We'll see you tomorrow night.

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