Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary presented a different political picture than the Iowa caucuses of last week. For the Republicans, this meant different winners and losers and a chance for a candidate to see new hope in what was once a dying campaign.

If Iowa was about getting the undecided voter, New Hampshire was about the political “independent,” a soft euphemism for voters who vote for the candidate rather than the political philosophy.

The GOP primary results present not much in the way of surprises. John McCain, Republican darling of the mainstream media and independents alike, won over Mitt Romney, partly because of his image as a maverick within the party, and partly because McCain’s victory in the same primary eight years ago gives him the name recognition advantage. McCain, whose campaign was all but dead as late as this past fall, saw a surge in popularity with his fourth place finish in Iowa. He was certainly helped by the positive news coming out of Iraq, an effort McCain has supported from the beginning and has made a central part of his campaign. Exit polls show that behind the economy, the war in Iraq was the second most important issue to New Hampshire GOP primary, whereas illegal immigration ranked somewhere around fourth.

The most interesting aspect of the Republican primary is that it really does nothing but introduce yet another viable candidate for the nomination. The quick ascents of McCain and Mike Huckabee simply add more uncertainty as the Republicans try to figure out what brand of Republicanism they support. Despite what some analysts claim, Huckabee’s victory in Iowa is probably due more to his populist economic agenda, which resonates well in an agricultural economy, than his evangelical base, which also voted for Romney, McCain and Fred Thompson. McCain, again, saw victory in New Hampshire from a more liberal Republican electorate who respond to his softer immigration stance and his consistent support of the Iraq war, but the more conservative Republicans in states like South Carolina, where closing the border is a rallying cry, the rhetoric of Romney or Thompson sounds better to the voters.

After being declared the winner early in the night, McCain took to the stage at his headquarters in Nashua to claim victory and thank his supporters. His speech sounded more like the convention speech of a new nominee rather than that of the winner of the New Hampshire primary, carrying with it a message of service to his country and highlighting McCain’s tough stance on Islamic terrorism and winning the war in Iraq. This is a wave of an issue that McCain can really ride on with his record of voting support in the Senate for aggressive security policies.

The important point is that the two major primary elections have been in states where conservative Republicans are outnumbered by their homegrown varieties. The race for the Republican nomination is still wide open among the big five of McCain, Huckabee, Romney, Thompson and Giuliani, and we might even be seeing the chance of a brokered convention this summer. In the meantime, the Republican voters will have the chance in the next few weeks to decide how their party will be defined in 2008.

—Mike Warren is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Science. He can be reached at michael.r.warren@vanderbilt.edu.