MANCHESTER, NH — Republican voters are hitting the polls today in the nation’s first primary. Polls, as they have throughout the campaign, show Mitt Romney with a dominant lead but beyond that it’s unclear who will finish second through fourth and a number of big last-second developments could potentially have a major effect on the final vote tallies. Without further ado, let’s review five of the big story lines to watch tonight.Romney vs. The Kitchen Sink Mitt Romney’s frontrunner status in New Hampshire has never really been in doubt, but the state is proving a dangerous laboratory for the rest of the field to test out by far the toughest anti-Romney attacks yet. In particular, the last few days have seen an explosion of coverage of Romney’s career at Bain Capital as multiple candidates have gone on the offensive over its history of layoffs and are highlighting cases in which companies that went bankrupt still ended up producing huge profits for Romney and his fellow executives. Romney, for his part, hasn’t helped matters by recounting the times he was worried about getting a pink slip and then talking about how much he likes being able to fire people. The latter was a reference to health care providers not employees, but Democrats and Republicans alike are all too happy to use the video to reinforce their Romney-as-Gordon-Gekko message. If Romney underperforms in the polls, his opponents may decide they’re onto something.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=102552