The Aftermath of IA

Well, the first state has decided, didn't hurt too much.

Biden and Dodd are out now, sad, but necessary - the top three are not going anywhere yet, and in this abbreviated season it is time to start getting down to the most likely candidates. Just reality.

Good day for Obama, and he gave a good speech afterwards.



Edwards took second, but he doesn't have any strong numbers elsewhere to give much hope. But the season is just starting.

The Edwards speech.

The Clinton speech.


The clearest good news for all liberals was the turnout.

220,000 people. That is a large expansion of the 2004 numbers. People came out to get involved. Good for you!

And compared to Republicans?

TPM:

Beyond who won on each side, there's a very big partisan message out of tonight. Just under 220,000 Democrats caucused tonight. About 115,000 Republicans did. That is a very big vote in itself.

AMERICAblog:

...

Hillary lost Iowa, and came in 3rd, with 29% of the vote. A projected 220,000 people turned out to vote in the Democratic caucuses, meaning Hillary got 29% of those voters, or an estimated 63,800 - nearly twice the number of votes that Huckabee got. (Actually, the Des Moines Register's latest numbers show Hillary getting just over 67,000 votes, so I was right.)

So our 3rd place candidate beat their first place candidate by almost a factor of two. Not sure what it means, but it's funny as hell.

The Republicans can't muster that much enthusiasm for these candidates. Not much here to get fired up about, unless you are an evangelical looking "to take back America", but a lot them already know that they got that last Christmas.

Trouble is that Reps tend to get single minded when handed their leader after the convention. And no matter who wins it, the party will be selling them hard.