Several contributers at MSNBC seemed to be suggesting that race was a factor in New Hampshire voting, specifically Chris Matthews whom I heard on Morning Joe and Andrea Mitchell whom I heard on a later news report. I also have read Tim Russert suggested it. Specifically the charge was that white voters were lying to pollsters about their willingness to vote for a black candidate. They seem to disregard the percentage of voters who also told pollsters they were undecided the weekend before the vote.

The Obama campaign hadn’t officially suggested that this might be the case. However an Obama co-chair, Jesse Jackson, Jr., questioning Clinton’s impromptu tear-filled moment the day before the primary and linking it into Hurricane Katrina in such a way that seems to suggest race.

TPM Election Central has the quotes and video:

But those tears also have to be analyzed. They have to be looked at very, very carefully in light of Katrina, in light of other things that Mrs. Clinton did not cry for, particularly as we head to South Carolina where 45% of African-Americans who participate in the Democratic contest, and they see real hope in Barack Obama.

We saw something very clever in the last week of this campaign coming out of Iowa, going into New Hampshire, we saw a sensitivity factor. Something that Mrs. Clinton has not been able to do with voters that she tried in New Hampshire.

Not in response to voters — not in response to Katrina, not in response to other issues that have devastated the American people, the war in Iraq, we saw tears in response to her appearance. So her appearance brought her to tears, but not hurricane Katrina.