Iowa: Damn It Feels Good To Be Right
…and by that I mean ‘correct’ not ‘Republican’.
Democrats
Obama
Not only did he carry the day with 38% of the vote but apparently his speech afterwards is being called the most important and inspirational of this election thus far, too bad I missed it. Now he has a healthy 10-point lead on Hillary in New Hampshire. This should be good. I know Republicans who are ready to vote for him.
Edwards
Came in second with 30%, I would have predicted this but I was concerned I was letting wishful thinking guide my predictions – either way I’m happy about this result. And now he’s saying he wants to come in second to Obama in New Hampshire. Good man, Edwards.
Clinton
Came in third with 29% of the popular vote but gets one more delegate than Edwards, thankfully no one’s really paying attention to that. Does the steamroller that is the Obama campaign toll for Hillary? Let’s hope.
Richardson
Came in fourth with 2%, so I thought Biden might beat him but I did acknowledge that it would be neck-and-neck. Nice of him to stay in the running I think.
Biden
Came in fifth with 1%, I was surprised to hear he was dropping out at first but the more I thought about it the more sense it made. The fact is, it was inevitable, so why waste the time and money?
Dodd
He finally faced reality, good for him. Now we can narrow our field of discussion a bit and better focus our efforts.
Gravel
I thought he had dropped out shortly after Iowa but it turns out that was a mistake by MSNBC. He’s had a lot of support online and been able to raise some pretty significant funds for someone not well recognized. Apparently Noam Chomsky is backing him so despite his poor showing in Iowa, he’s not out of the game yet.
Kucinich
No surprise there, he did the right thing and I think people will respect him for it going forward.
Republicans
Huckabee
Who knew? Granted I predicted he would gain ground but I was as surprised as most at his strong showing. I saw his interview with Larry King afterwards and despite some negative slip-ups late in the campaign he struck me as a man of honour. And he stole Obama’s talking points but seemed to acknowledge that it was a matter of good ideas being evaluated on merit rather than their source. Is Huckabee jumping on a bandwagon or is he the genuine article? Will it matter in the long run? Time will tell but one thing is for sure his win reframed the debate into more constructive terms. I doubt we’ll ever see a President Huckabee but we might have a better race because of his contribution.
Romney
Odd how Obama’s 8-point lead looks crushing but Huckabee’s 9-point lead doesn’t seem to encourage anyone to speculate that Romney is out or that the Republican field has even narrowed. I guess McCain’s strategizing is throwing a bit of a monkey wrench into the traditional predictive conventions – good for him but more of him later.
Thompson
Thompson beat McCain? Thompson?! Recount! I demand a recount! It’s 4 days after the fact and there’s still only 98% reporting? Thompson’s lead is 345 and there are still approximately 2,400 votes not yet counted? Sounds like them crazy vote-rigging Republicans are back to their old tricks. Good thing Obama’s crushing victory in November will be such a landslide that a little data massaging won’t be able to turn the tides this time.
McCain
McCain is a military man and he’s approaching this campaign with a strategic bent. He’s concentrating on the important targets to win the war rather than some blanket campaign war of attrition and frankly I’m very glad (and not just a little relieved) to see it. McCain put virtually no effort into Iowa and yet he came in 4th, or perhaps 3rd. Can you imagine how well he would have done if this was a more important target in the Republican battleground? People are already predicting his Obama-like win in New Hampshire.
Paul
10%, who saw that coming? Well I certainly didn’t given my prediction that he’d drop out after a bad showing. Weird. The Crypt Keeper is still in it.
Giuliani
Now I know I predicted he would lose ground but I don’t think anyone imagined just how poorly he would do. Just one of the reasons Iowa made me less fearful of Americans and more hopeful for the future.
Hunter
You know, Biden took only getting 1% of the vote in Iowa as a sign and did the right thing, why didn’t you? And who are you again?
Quote of the night: “We’re not going to have an auction, we’re going to have an election” –Edwards
Addendum: Wyoming
Romney
See? I told you we hadn’t heard the last of him.
Thompson
Seriously, what is it with this guy? When did he become such a serious candidate as to marginalize McCain? Granted McCain hasn’t made his big play yet but nevertheless Thompson coming in second anywhere is a bit of a shock, unless of course it was behind McCain.
Hunter
Who is this guy and why won’t he die? Granted he only got 8% of the vote and only 1 delegate but nevertheless he beat out 4 people with greater name recognition and policy promotion. How?
Giuliani
Another defeat for Mr. 911. Can’t say I’m upset about it.
Huckabee
He must feel like someone tapped the breaks when he was speeding. Wyoming isn’t critical but it must be a tiny bit discouraging nevertheless.
McCain
I don’t want to talk about it.
Paul
Who cares? Just reality re-asserting itself.
New Hampshire
So the democrats are in a 6-person race, let’s take a quick look.
Obama
Did he win the presidency last week? I still think so. Crush ‘em Obama, crush ‘em with respect, honour, and dignity.
Edwards
Hopes to come in second to Obama. I hope so too.
Clinton
Why does CNN keep doing their best to make it look like she’s doing better than in reality? If there’s one poll that says she’s 10 points behind and one that say 9 points, they write about the 9-point poll. If she came in 3rd in Iowa, they find delegates and superdelegates that have pledged support to make it look like she’s in first. But what’s really going on? A supporter asked her about her hair and she nearly broke down into tears over pizza. Of course nothing could stop CNN from reporting on that.
Richardson
Look, on the Democratic side of things it will largely be a repeat of Iowa but with fewer players and bigger gaps. Obama first, Edwards second, Hillary third, Richardson fourth. I said it before and I’ll say it again he’ll drop out after Nevada fails to do for him what New Hampshire is likely to do for McCain.
Kucinich
Do you think he feels bad about Iowa? I doubt it. Like I said, replay.
Gravel
Will he get the message this time? I hope so.
