There is not an anti-Trump majority — not yet. In late January, the New York Times profiled some of the New Hampshire voters showing up at rallies for non-Trump candidates, and labeled them "the 68 Percent — the significant majority of Republican voters here who are immune to Mr. Trump’s charms and entreaties." When Trump narrowly lost Iowa, the influential conservative pundit Erick Erickson declared that the state had rejected the "politics of jackassery by 75 percent." You were with Trump, or you were against him, and to beat him, a candidate simply needed to consolidate the "against" vote.

Last night's exit poll complicated this theory. Trump won just 35 percent of the vote, but 50 percent of primary voters said they would be satisfied if the mogul won the Republican nomination. By contrast, just 40 percent said that of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who before his debate malfunction had enjoyed the highest favorable ratings in the field.

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Did the high independent turnout move those numbers? Sure. But in one of the night's most shocking exit poll results, fully two-thirds of primary voters agreed with the idea of "temporarily banning Muslims who are not U.S. citizens from entering the U.S." That was Trump's idea, condemned universally in the media, condemned carefully by rival Republicans.

It's true that Trump, like any candidate, has a wider path to victory if the field stays divided between six or seven candidates. And it's true that Trump's liberal heresies from the past — all on video — may hurt him more in closed Republican primaries than in New Hampshire. But at the moment, not every voter who picks someone else is an anti-Trump voter.

More Democratic votes were cast in 2008 than in Sanders's "political revolution."

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In his victory speech last night, Sanders repeatedly informed his crowd and his TV audience that a "record" turnout had swept him to victory. "Democrats and progressives win when voter turnout is high," said Sanders. "Republicans win when people are demoralized, and voter turnout is low."

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Yet as in Iowa, where Democrats are only reluctantly releasing the vote counts from precincts, overall Democratic turnout in New Hampshire seems to be down from 2008. In 2008, when Hillary Clinton narrowly won the primary, 287,556 ballots were cast. Right now, with 93.3 percent of New Hampshire precincts counted, the total vote count is just 238,480. That's roughly 20,000 fewer total votes than went to the eight Republicans who were still actively competing last night.

It is highly unlikely that turnout will reach 2008 heights — and that's before the race heads to South Carolina, where Obama-era party-switching to the GOP and the absence of a historic black candidate is expected to lead to a smaller electorate. The surprisingly competitive primary will drive out more voters than the "coronation" that Clinton once hoped to enjoy, but it is also, so far, lagging behind the Republican primary in terms of raw votes. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who talks more openly about strategy than any of his presidential rivals, has delighted in saying that on the trail.