Two Upsets in Iowa

[saavedra77]

The big winners in Iowa tonight are insurgents Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee--each of whom bested an opponent at one time thought to be in some way "inevitable": Preliminary results are in fact also suggesting that national Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton may have only come in third. On the Republican side, Mitt Romney basically got trounced, despite throwing mountains of money at Iowa. And longtime G.O.P. favorite Rudy Giuliani appears to have come in behind libertarian longshot Ron Paul.

I have to say that I'm really intrigued by this result. Obviously, it's way, way too early to call either nomination. But Obama and Huckabee strike me as by far the most interesting prospective general election match-up. Both candidates would represent something of a generational shift for their parties.

Now the pundits are talking about a John McCain comeback in New Hampshire, a Rudy Giuliani resurrection in Florida, even a brokered G.O.P. convention.

And the Democratic race remains a Clinton-Edwards-Obama contest, although the momentum now seems to belong to Obama.

This is shaping up to be an exciting election year.

Comments

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Huckabee's worrisome, alright, but the idea of his winning a general election just doesn't seem credible, somehow. Maybe I'm way out of touch with the mainstream, but I think that he'd likely be to the religious right what McGovern was to the antiwar left, in '72. Despite the quips and the guitar antics, I can't help thinking he'll prove too sectarian, too regional.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong and he'll prove to be the rock 'n' roll Reagan ....