As with Huckabee earlier, all the networks are projecting Barack Obama the winner of the Democratic Iowa caucus. John Edwards and Hillary Clinton are neck and neck fighting for second and third place, but Obama came out on top. Usually, second place doesn't matter, but in this case, a third place finish for Hillary might spell real trouble for her campaign. MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell reported from the Clinton camp that the atmosphere was more like a funeral than a campaign rally. Can Obama hold on to this lead going into New Hampshire and South Carolina?
Chris Matthews has been railing against both Hillary and Bill Clinton, saying Hillary's 30% showing meant that 2/3 of Iowans didn't vote for her, but Rachel Maddow tries her best to debunk that theory. Where Obama did succeed was getting out the youth and new votes. Preliminary numbers show that 60% were first time caucus goers. 39% of new voters went for Obama. Young people’s turnout was 25%, which means they out performed their share of the population which is 22%. Young voters were 57% of Obama's support, according to entrance polls.
John Amato: CNN just reported 212,000 Dem turnout. In 2004, it was 125,000.
UPDATE: Sean Hannity was so down that Huckabee won. He called it a Huckaboom or Huckabust.
Edwards speech was very good and the FOX panel including Luntz called him the Angry man. They were trying to smear him with the old Iowa/Dean scream. Hillary talked about how great the entire Democratic candidates are. Hint, hint...A little change of strategy me thinks....