“DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – John Kerry seized the lead as Iowa Democrats began their first-in-the-nation voting Monday, the initial step in the battle to face President Bush this fall.
Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont were battling for second, with Dick Gephardt, the winner of the 1988 caucuses, falling short of the victory he needs to stay politically viable”
Drudge, meanwhile, has:
881 of 1,993 precincts reporting – 44 percent
Wesley Clark, 3 – 0 percent
Howard Dean, 540 – 18 percent
John Edwards, 978 – 33 percent
Richard Gephardt, 333 – 11 percent
John Kerry, 1,104 – 37 percent
Dennis Kucinich, 27 – 1 percent
Joe Lieberman, 0 – 0 percent
Carol Moseley Braun, 0 – 0 percent
Al Sharpton, 0 – 0 percent
Uncommitted, 3 – 0 percent
So, what happened to Dean, Clark, and the rest?
Well, I’ll give a quick, offhanded thoughts;
With the exception of Dean…. (who unquestionably represents the irrationally ticked off part of the party), it has to do with how effective they were in getting their message out to the voters. The more effective they were in this regard, the less that more rational people voted for them. (Granted that rationality among Democrats is in short supply…)
But look at Edwards, who the press basicly wrote off, and wasn’t covering to speak of, and as a result is more or less an unknown out there.
I’m not quite sure what to make of that conclusion, just yet. But whatever it means, it does suggest this full tilt to the left nonsense isn’t selling among Iowa Democrats. At the least, they see that people such as Clark, Kucinich, et al, stand no chance in the general election, and they’re willing to try the unknown.
I guess that the next logical question will be, will any of the candidates change anything in their positions on the issues. I doubt they will.
