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Obama & Huckabee Come In Out of the Cold: Race Heats Up as They Win Iowa Caucus

by PEP | January 3, 2008 at 06:43 pm

510 views | 14 Recommendations | 4 comments

Update: And the fallout from Iowa begins: Sen. Chris Dodd and Sen. Joe Biden are both out of the race. Both are Democrats.

Update: John Edwards said: "The status quo lost."

Update: Despite the complexity of the Democratic process, they're almost done. Amazing.

Update: Obama's lead continues to lengthen.

Frankly, I'm surprised at Huckabee's win and the percentage.

Sen. Barack Obama (Democrat) and Gov. Mike Huckabee (Republican) won decisively tonight in Iowa. Other Democratic voting put Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. John Edwards effectively tied for second place, with Obama taking a several-point lead.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee emerged as the Republican standard-bearer, with Gov. Mitt Romney a dozen points behind. Sen. Fred Thompson and Sen. John McCain limped in third and fouirth.

The weather's been cold, but the campaigning has been hot--and sometimes hot under the collar, as charges of negative ads soared. Will these votes be an accurate forecast of the next set of primary or caucus elections?

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Jordan Yerman

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:37 on January 4th, 2008

The caucus process is a lot like a middle-school square dance.

Brian A Kennedy

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 05:03 on January 4th, 2008

Agreed -- the Huckabee win is very surprising. I really wonder whether this foreshadows how the next several months are going to turn out, or is just one of those Howard Dean things...

outragousart

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 09:52 on January 4th, 2008

PEP, I like this story. It's good stuff.

I was suprised to learn more about the caucus process. It appears that if you are a Democrat, your vote only counts when you are in a majority. Anyone who doesn't garner 15% of the vote walking in, either changes their vote or goes home. The Democrats accused Republicans of "disenfranchising" voters in Florida when the voters, by their own fault, were unable to vote properly. In reality, the Democrats start the elections process by "disenfranchising" their own voters. This isn't democracy, it is mob rule. Is this legal? It certainly isn't proper.