IT’S POLITICAL: South Carolina’s Nikki Haley won the first six votes cast at midnight yesterday in New Hampshire’s Dixville Notch and went on to win a psychologic victory in the state’s Republican primary by narrowing the distance between her and Donald Trump.

  Polling at 38 percent of the vote before yesterday, Haley finished New Hampshire with 43.2 percent to Donald Trump’s 54.6. By the numbers, she lost big and still celebrated exclaiming, “And today we got close to half of the vote!” But no one wins a two person race with half the vote.

  In her celebratory second place speech to supporters, Haley offered herself as a new generation candidate and hit hard at the age of opponents Donald Trump and Joe Biden saying, “The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins this election.” 

  Haley said she’s staying in it, moving on to campaign in her home state of South Carolina and promising “There are dozens of states left to go.” The polls in South Carolina, where the voters know Haley well, have Trump at 61 percent, Haley 25.

  Graceful as always, Trump said last night, “Who the hell was the impostor who went up on the stage and claimed a victory?” Haley had actually congratulated him for winning.

CATHOLIC POLITICS: President Biden, a practicing Catholic, headlined a rally for abortion rights yesterday, focusing on an issue that could win a lot of votes for Democrats in November. He appeared in front of a banner that said, “Restore Roe,” the overturned Supreme Court decision that guaranteed the right to abortion.

  He said, “It was Donald Trump and his Supreme Court that ripped away the rights and freedom of women in America, and it will be Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and all of you who return those rights to the women of America.”

  Biden was interrupted by protesters waving Palestinian flags, shouting “Genocide Joe”, and demanding a cease-fire in Gaza.

THE WAR ROOM: A Russian military plane with 74 people on board has crashed in the Belgorod region of Russia, killing everyone on board. Russia says the plane was carrying Ukrainian POWs for a prisoner exchange. 

  In Ukraine, commanders say Russian forces are throwing away their troops with “human wave” attacks that leave the field littered with the dead only to face another wave the next day. Both sides are suffering severe casualties, but Ukraine does not publicize its numbers.

  With winter settled on the front, Ukraine is rationing artillery shells as US military aid is running out.

STROKES AND SNUBS: The atomic bomb movie “Oppenheimer” led the Oscar nominations yesterday with 13, followed by “Poor Things”, 11; “Killers of the Flower Moon”, 10; “Barbie” eight; and “Maestro” seven. 

  Lily Gladstone became the first Native American actress nominated for Best Actress in “Killers of the Flower Moon”, but Greta Lee was snubbed for her subtly stirring performance in “Past Lives.” 

  Despite steering a billion dollar blockbuster with “Barbie,” Greta Gerwig was stiffed for best Director as was the picture’s star, Margot Robbie, unrecognized for Best Actress. Instead, Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for playing Barbie’s plastic sidekick, Ken.

THE OBIT PAGE: Former CBS News correspondent and radio host Charles Osgood, one of the most felicitous writers and humorists in the history of network news, died yesterday at home in New Jersey at age 91.

  He was known originally for his “Osgood File” essays and commentaries on radio, but also had a long career on television, a medium he used in pursuit of offbeat stories.

 Osgood was the host of “CBS Sunday Morning” wearing his signature bow tie from 1994 to 2016. But his love was radio and he used to sign off his television show with “See you on the radio.”

  Osgood also loved rhymes and struck back at a network executive who told him to stop with the following … on air.

     “See you on the radio” … I say that every week,
      A peculiar phrase, some people think, for anyone to speak.
      I’ve got a piece of mail or two, up on my office shelf,
     Complaining that the sentence seems to contradict itself.
     “Dear Mr. Osgood,” someone wrote, “that signoff is absurd,
     Radio is for the ear … the song or spoken word.”

THE SPIN RACK: The Los Angeles Times, owned by billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, is laying off about 115 people, roughly 20 percent of its journalists. The Washington bureau is reported to be “decimated.” The paper has been losing $30-$40 million a year, but Soon-Shiong told the Times’s own Meg James that, “We are not in turmoil. We have a real plan.”  — A man suspected of shooting and killing eight people in suburban Chicago killed himself during a confrontation with law enforcement officials in Texas. Police say 23-year-old Romeo Nance knew the eight people he killed at three locations. Police Chief William Evans in Joliet said, “I’ve been a policeman 29 years and this is probably the worst crime scene I’ve ever been associated with.” — A man from Hebron in upstate New York has been convicted of murder for shooting and killing a 20-year-old woman riding in a car that had taken a wrong turn up his driveway.  Kevin Monahan, 66, had claimed that the fatal shot was accidental.

BELOW THE FOLD: A transgender Italian man who was undergoing a mastectomy was discovered to be five months pregnant, becoming in the trans world what is known as a “seahorse dad.”

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