Well, our good friend Peter in New Hampshire is about to be bumping into a bunch of guys that are gonna want to shake his hand and tell him why he should vote for them. As a matter of fact Peter, if it gets a little noisy up there at about 2am it's because that's about the time Kerry, Edwards, and Dean are due to touch down at your local airport. You won't be running into Dick Gephardt though...he's going home and will announce he's out of the race.
Well, Kerry and Edwards were the big winners in Iowa. The last time I looked Kerry had taken about 38% of the vote, with Edwards at 32%. Dean sunk hard getting only about 18%. That means he got beat by Kerry by about 2 to 1, finishing a big 20 percentage points behind him and not even getting close to Edwards. So, officially we have a new front-runner but what might that mean.
Well for one thing, I'm not saying to write him off but things just got harder for Dean. See, I think the momentum to flush him out of this race will begin to build now...as he's not the guy the DNC wants anyway. They got something to build on now...Kerry and Edwards beat him pretty good. Now with that ammo and Dean sagging, you're about to hear a lot about Kerry and Edwards. The media is going to start talking about how they came back from the dead and they will be the big story. What they'll be saying about Dean is "What went wrong with the Dean campaign?" and he's going to hear a lot of that while he trys to drum up support around New Hampshire. This means he's going to be on a negitive ride now and his performance in New Hampshire has now become huge for him. So, if Dean was your guy...you may begin to feel a little nostalgia about the fire he lit under Democrats right now...because it was a good run but people may be deciding he doesn't have enough going to beat Bush. Not only have Republicans been mouthing off about that but I think the establishment Democrats have thought that all along too. So, he's been fun to have around and he certainly added excitement but the fact is next to George Bush, I think Dr. Dean is second in line on the DNC shit list.
The other guy that may as well start to worry right now is Wes Clark. The Clark campaign could run against Dean and find ways to look good...but against Kerry as the front-runner Clark does not hold a big advantage...Kerry's a decorated war hero too. So, Clark needs to find a way to look better to voters than Kerry. I don't think that will happen with these primary voters.
So Kerry and Edwards head to New Hampshire red hot with Gephardt gone and Dean slumping. Edwards is preaching the "Two Americas" message. Dean's people are claiming Kerry and Edwards stole their message and a big nasty fight with Gephardt hurt him in Iowa.
New Hampshire should be fun...and Peter may not be able to get out of his driveway without shaking hands with a presidential hopeful every morning.
