JONATHAN CHAIT, NEW YORK
Donald Trump: Trump has performed better than any of his critics (myself included) imagined possible when he first seized control of the race last summer. If he has a ceiling, it’s no lower than that of any of his competitors. His internal opposition has declined. He has gotten better at politics. Mr. Trump’s win is the biggest victory in a New Hampshire Republican primary since at least 2000. He won pluralities of both Republican and independent voters, and showed strength across demographic groups. But he has also benefited from a hapless Republican Establishment that now faces the prospect of a takeover by an outsider it cannot control, and that richly deserves its predicament.
WASHINGTON POST
Bernie Sanders: If I told you six months ago that a 74-year-old socialist would crush the former secretary of state in the first-in-the-nation primary, there is NO way you would have believed me. Despite the best spin of Hillary Clinton's campaign, Sanders's win wasn't simply about the fact that he represents a neighboring state. Howard Dean represented a neighboring state and lost badly to John Kerry in 2004. This is a convincing win for Sanders that shows, for the second time in eight days, his appeal with young voters and the energy behind him. The race moves next to Nevada on Feb. 20, a caucus state where Sanders was already better positioned than most people give him credit for and where he will benefit from the positive coverage from his New Hampshire win. Then, as the race widens out nationally, there is only one real question for Sanders: Does what happened Tuesday night in New Hampshire make him more able to appeal to black and Hispanic voters? If not, he (still) can't win.
Ted Cruz is still going strong: Cruz won Iowa in large part because the state favors his social conservative politics. So it was more than okay for Cruz that he finished third in the more moderate state of New Hampshire -- ahead of more moderate candidates. As Fix Editor Aaron Blake explains, the next five weeks of voting look very, very good for Cruz. Many of the primaries are back on his social conservative turf: Many of the most evangelical states (the ones in red below) vote within the next month -- including a bunch on "Super Sunday."
* John Kasich: The Ohio governor put everything on the line in New Hampshire. The gamble worked as he managed to carve out a second place showing, ensuring that he will stay in the race through South Carolina and battle for the mantle of establishment choice within the party. Kasich's lead adviser -- John Weaver -- proved yet again that he knows how to position a candidate to appeal to New Hampshire Republicans and independents. (Weaver was in John McCain's inner circle when the Arizona senator stunned the political world in New Hampshire in 2000.) Kasich's strength in New Hampshire could well be his undoing as the race moves south and westward; his crossover appeal as a non-partisan problem solver will play far less well in, say South Carolina than it did in the Granite State. But, that's a worry for tomorrow for Kasich. At this point, he's got to be happy that he even has a tomorrow to worry about in this race.
* Michael Bloomberg: The former New York City Mayor stoked the fires of a possible third party bid earlier this week by disparaging the "banal" nature of the current conversation in both parties. The wins in New Hampshire by Trump and Sanders open up the possibility that one or both men could wind up as their parties's nominees, a dream scenario for those -- most notably Bloomberg himself -- who dream of a real chance for the former mayor. I wouldn't fall down dead if later this week "a Bloomberg insider" leaked either polling numbers or some sort of internal memo designed to stoke the fires for the former mayor's independent bid.
* Young people: For the second straight contested Democratic nomination fight, voters ages 18-29 are not a story in the race but the story in the race. Sanders's massive totals among that age group in Iowa (84 percent) and New Hampshire (85 percent) are absolutely amazing. And Clinton's inability to win even one in four votes of young people will be a giant story in the next few days and weeks. Damn you, millennials. You win again.
LOSERS:
Hillary Clinton has an honesty problem: Fix Boss Chris Cillizza was drawn to this number from New Hampshire Democrats' exit poll: About 1 in 3 (34 percent) of all New Hampshire Democratic primary voters said that honesty was the most important trait in their decision on which candidate to support. Of those, 92 percent went for Sanders. That number is so striking that there's reason to believe Clinton's email controversy while secretary of state could follow her to other states as well.
The GOP Establishment NY TIMES
Republican leaders had aimed to bring a swift and orderly resolution to the party’s presidential primaries, avoiding a long and costly fight that could stretch well into the spring.
Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary dashed those hopes.
Despite strenuous efforts to overtake Donald J. Trump, none of his mainstream Republican opponents stood out from the pack. Now, they are left to muddle forward with no particular momentum into the next contests, in South Carolina and Nevada.
If any strong alternative to Mr. Trump is to emerge, senior Republicans say, it will most likely come only after a long nomination fight, spanning dozens of states and costing many millions of dollars. At this stage, his most formidable rival appears to be Ted Cruz, the hard-right Texas senator who won last week’s Iowa caucuses, and who is even less acceptable to traditional party leaders than Mr. Trump.