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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (20020)	1/4/2008 10:49:33 AM
From: Ann Corrigan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224666

Iowa results hold lessons for the long road ahead usatoday.com, January 4, 2008 The Iowa caucuses are hardly representative, absurdly expensive and excessively analyzed. The 2008 versions were even more so than usual. Yet for all the caucuses' flaws, Thursday's results offer several conclusions: * The remarkable victories of Mike Huckabee on the Republican side and Barack Obama on the Democratic side demonstrate a keen interest in fresh faces, a desire to change Washington, and a repudiation of more establishment picks. Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former governor of Arkansas, was the only second-tier candidate of either party to emerge from the back of the pack to join the front-runners. Now he must show that he's more than a one-state wonder who can translate his popularity to places where religious conservatives are less of a factor. To go the distance, he must also improve on a grasp of foreign affairs that has been shaky at best. Obama, as an African-American running in an overwhelmingly white state with a large rural population, pulled off a stunning victory over John Edwards and Hillary Clinton. With her aura of inevitability evaporated, Clinton faces serious danger in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, once considered a firewall against defeat in Iowa. Edwards devoted so much effort to Iowa that his failure to win leaves him hard-pressed to find a path to the nomination. Even so, Obama's victory will raise new questions about his relative lack of experience, just three years in the Senate. * Money and organization aren't everything. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney outspent Huckabee at least 15-to-1 in Iowa, yet Romney finished second, nearly 10 points behind the GOP winner. Like Clinton, Romney faces a crucial test in New Hampshire. * Although the Iowa caucuses don't always anoint the winners, they begin weeding out the losers. That's particularly the case this year, when both parties featured large fields of candidates with no clear front-runner. On the Republican side, former senator Fred Thompson's relatively weak showing suggests that his late entry into the campaign was a triumph of hope over reality. And it's long past time for Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., to depart the scene. Among the Democratic laggards, Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, who went so far as to move his family to Iowa, dropped out after his poor finish, as did Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson also was, at best, on life support. Voters will benefit from fewer candidates on the stage at the debates this weekend and beyond. Until now, there have simply been too many of them to give the strongest contenders the attention they deserve. If these Iowa caucuses — the biggest, longest, most expensive ever — served a useful purpose, it was in winnowing down the field so voters in other states can be more selective.<