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January 19, 2004
IOWA RESULTS
Wow. Okay, so I called Kerry in first, and Gephardt last - but could I have been more wrong about everything else?
I am at a loss to explain what happened to Gephardt. I expected him to finish 4th, but with half the votes that the polls said he was going to get? Man - labor endorsements don't mean what they used to. This has got to be a surprise to the Teamsters - and a shock - that they can't turn out voters anymore. Gephardt is out... and I'll bet Kucinich is gone after New Hampshire. And then there were six...
Dean... I guess the temptation will be for people to write him off now, which I was about to say is a little premature. But - he's got to lay off the caffiene before the speeches; he sounded like a junior high school teacher leading a pep rally tonight. He needs more decorum on the stump if he wants to appeal to people. I really, honestly think that he could survive 3rd place in Iowa - but tonight's speech is going to come back to haunt him. Guaranteed.
Kerry - I've been a Kerry guy from Day One, even tried to go to work for him. I was shocked that he managed to roar back to the level he has... but it gives me hope that he can yet resurrect what had until two weeks ago been a lackluster campaign. Congratulations to the Kerry campaign - I thought they could win, but not this big.
Edwards - I have to admit, while I had given Edwards some consideration as to his chances in this race, I'd never really paid attention to his style or what he had to say, because I was behind Kerry from early on. (All that grad school in Boston seems to have predisposed me to all things Massachusetts.) But I watched Edwards' speech tonight, and I must say I found it highly inspiring. He talked like I haven't heard a candidate talk in a long time - and as dorkyt as it sounds, I was reminded of the idealistic reasons I'd gone into politics in the first place way back in the day. I'm not going to just shift allegiances because Edwards showed well in Iowa, but I'll be watching him more closely now. And - like Wesley Clark - if he were to win instead of Kerry, I could live with it.
A very, very interesting night. It's going to be an even more interesting week.
