A new poll in New Hampshire shows Bernie Sanders overtaking Hillary Clinton by a not-a-squeaker margin. So now we have the establishments of two parties faced with more work then they expected to do during their primary seasons due to “outsiders” taking the lead. But in the case of the Republicans, Donald Trump is in the lead nationally. In the case of the Dems, Clinton is in the lead. Still this will and is raising some eyebrows:

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has rocketed past longtime front-runner Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, a stunning turn in a race once considered a lock for the former secretary of state, a new Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll shows.

Sanders leads Clinton 44-37 percent among likely Democratic primary voters, the first time the heavily favored Clinton has trailed in the 2016 primary campaign, according to the poll of 442 Granite-Staters.

Vice President Joe Biden got 9 percent support in the test primary match-up. The other announced Democrats in the race, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee and former Virginia Gov. Jim Webb, barely register at 1 percent or below.

The live interview phone poll was conducted Aug. 7-10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.

Clinton is still viewed overwhelmingly by voters as the likely Democratic nominee, but the results suggest she faces an unexpectedly difficult fight to prevent an embarrassing opening loss in the first-in-the-nation primary.

The Franklin Pierce/Herald poll shows that most New Hampshire Democrats are lukewarm to Clinton, despite her campaign’s concerted effort to soften her image and connect with voters.

Just 35 percent of likely primary voters say they are “excited” about Clinton’s campaign, according to the poll. And 51 percent of voters say that while they could support her, they aren’t enthusiastic about her White House bid.

And while 80 percent of likely Granite State Democrats view her favorably, just 38 percent of those say they have a “very” favorable impression.

Sanders’ rise has been meteoric. The socialist senator trailed Clinton by a 44-8 margin in a Franklin Pierce/Herald poll in March.

While partisans and supporters of X, Y, and Z candidates get all excited about New Hampshire, it is indeed an important primary but political history shows that he or she who wins their party primary there is not always the one who winds up with his or her nomination.

Even so, clearly Clinton has a problem. Her email scandal, which many contend is overblown, is not going away and growing, Donald Trump is sucking up all the media oxygen, Sanders is drawing big crowds because of his bluntness and offering a message the party’s progressives feel is more attuned to them.

Indeed, what we are now seeing is a chunk of the bases of both parties echoing the late comedian Joe Besser when it comes to candidates supported by their parties’ establishment. They’re saying: “Not so faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast!!”

Blogs are abuzz with this poll, particularly conservative weblogs that suggest this shows how weak Hillary Clinton is and any bad news about Hillary Clinton’s campaign is great news for them. Some progressive websites — and most assuredly some of the hosts on MSNBC who have been touting Sanders for months — are likely to play this poll up as an example that Clinton’s campaign is failing.

But it is still q-u-i-t-e early in this race. Yet, one thing is clear: the people who were originally assumed to be the big powerhouses with lots of $$$$$ are having problems. There’s no national political wildfire ablaze for Jeb Bush and at the least Hillary Clinton’s campaign has hit a speed bump.

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graphic via shutterstock.com

JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.

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