No excuses.

I purposely made my New Hampshire prediction on Saturday, because I didn’t want to be influenced by the weekend polls. My ulterior motive was that if I called it correctly from three days out, I’d look really smart.

I don’t look smart this morning, but if I’d had access to those weekend polls, I’d look even dumber.

I said the margin between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in New Hampshire would be closer than it was in Iowa. I was right. I said Mr. Obama would come out on top. I was wrong. I said John Edwards would finish a semi-distant third and while there’s some wiggle room there, I won’t take it. Mr. Edwards was a distant third.

I predicted Bill Richardson would drop from the race and endorse Mr. Obama. Neither happened.

On the Republican side, I said John McCain would beat Mitt Romney, again by a close margin. Mr. McCain did win, but the margin was bigger than I’d predicted. Mike Huckabee was a distant third, as I predicted. That doesn’t exactly make me a genius.

I predicted Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter would drop from the race; neither has. Mr. Hunter’s entire candidacy has been mysterious to me, so I won’t try to explain what he’s up to, but Fred Thompson? He finished with 1.2 percent and he’s still in? He’s an actor and can’t manage to act like he interested in his own campaign, but he’s still in? I guess I should be glad I can’t predict what these guys will do.