Huckabee and Obama Win Iowa Caucuses

Posted on January 3, 2008

With nearly all of the precincts reporting, Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama have won the Iowa caucuses. On the democratic side: with 97% of the precincts reporting, Obama won 38%, Edwards won 30% and Clinton won 29%. On the Republican side with 85% of the precincts reporting, Huckabee won 34% of the vote, Romney won 25% and Thompson won 14%. As with the caucuses, each party handles things differently when it comes to delegates.

So, what does it all mean? on the Democratic side it's a win for Obama, certainly and will give him some press and headlines as he goes to New Hampshire tomorrow. For Edwards, it's a problem. He has a money issues, and coming in just a few votes head of Clinton is no help at all. For Clinton, it shows that she made the correct choice in not skipping Iowa. Because the dirty little secret about Iowa that the mainstream press keeps "forgetting" to report is that the state has never elected a woman to anything. Not to the House of Representatives, not to the Senate and not to the Governor's mansion. For Clinton to land in a tie for second is excellent for her. She needs pack up, head to New Hampshire and not look back. In fact, her big test doesn't really come until February 5th or Super Duper Tuesday when a large number of states are holding their primaries this year, including delegate-rich California and New York.

As for the Republicans, it's a real blow to Mitt Romney who spent $6 million in the state. This is not a happy night for him. For Guiliani it's a disaster and shows that he made a big mistake not campaigning in Iowa. Guiliani got only 4% of the vote while being beat handily by Ron Paul, who got 10%. Ouch.

It's a big win for Huckabee -- 60% of the caucus-goers described themselves as Evangelical Christians. But finding that many Evangelicals in New Hampshire will be much more difficult, to say the least. Thompson and McCain are still slugging it out for third -- it's withing a few hundred votes. McCain has already set his sites on New Hampshire, where he is currently leading in the polls. Ron Paul is no doubt thrilled that he got 10% of the vote and beat Guiliani.

That's the Iowa Caucuses: complex and inconsequential. As the primary season heats, Iowa will soon be a distant memory.