What Happened Yesterday?

I was ready to see Ron Paul prove the ignorance of America's youth yesterday with a victory in the Iowa caucuses. It was a relief to see that they didn't stampede the sensible folks and his final numbers were well below the estimates. He will hang on for a day or two but there is no other place in the process that will give him the leverage for his followers that he enjoyed in Iowa. That candle has been burned.

Bachmann announced cancellation of her trip to S. Carolina already and has a presser scheduled for a few hours from now. Ba-Bye!

We can't expect any magic from Huntsman. He just doesn't light any fires anywhere.

The near dead-heat finish of Santorum-Romney shows how strong the "Anti-Mitt" feeling is. Romney broke from the gate a year ago at roughly 25% and still closed Iowa at 25% which isn't building big mo'. Santorum apparently connected with voters in Iowa as sufficiently conservative on social issues and more than qualified on political understanding. What he needs now is a grand dollar infusion to get his organizations on the fast track for the next half-dozen contests.

The Ron Paul/Mitt Romney smear attacks drove a large oaken stake into the heart of the Gingrich campaign. Newt's nuanced efforts to stay positive while still pointing out short-comings of his opponents left him battered and bleeding on the political roadside. In the final days he looked exhausted and his message had deteriorated into a repetition of cliched sound-bites that sounded more like playground whining than political genius.

Perry has the money to continue, but at this point I have to hope he has the political wisdom to know when he should leave the field. He has not shown well and is only damaging his brand for future political support.

The Iowa tail has taken an aggressive wag of the national presidential campaign dog. The cliche of "three tickets out of Iowa" seems to have held up and in fact it might prove to be only two tickets for the long ride of January.