O’DONNELL: “So, I think one of the relevant frames to use in looking at what Trump achieved tonight and didn’t achieve is what Joe Biden achieved.
Someone else came in second tonight.
Dean Phillips, running against Joe Biden, is coming in second with 20% of the vote among the Democratic — the unofficial Democratic primary that they had there.
The model that he had going into New Hampshire was Gene McCarthy in 1968 who won 42% of the vote against the sitting President Lyndon Johnson, who also had a write-in campaign.
Johnson didn’t bother to have his name on the appellate, just like Biden.
Both of them or ran unofficial write-in campaigns.
So, Dean Phillips got completely crushed, didn’t come close to the threshold.
If Gene McCarthy had gotten 20% in 1968, that would’ve been the end.
No one would have talked about it again.
Bobby Kennedy probably would’ve rethought his plan to get into the race after seeing how strong LBJ was.
So, Joe Biden demonstrates this enormous strength in New Hampshire tonight.
And then you have Trump showing much greater weakness against a credible challenger.
And it depends on how you want to look at Trump.
He wants to be called president in court and everywhere.
So let’s call him president just for this moment.
When a president is on the ballot in the New Hampshire primary, you’re supposed to win everything.
You’re not supposed to face a serious challenge.
And when you do, you lose.
There is no president who faced serious challenges in the New Hampshire primary, who then won in November.
So, this is a very bad night for Donald Trump, looking at the pattern of presidents in New Hampshire primary situations who faced very serious challenges.”
