Iowa postgame

Obama wins, by a slim but breathable margin. Witness the friendly face of fascism, and despair? OK, that's probably harsh. There is a more optimistic view of Obama that imagines him as a Trojan horse, playing the Bush-in-reverse card by racing to the center during the campaign, then governing as a liberal when elected. For the dangers involved in such a scenario, one need look no further than Bush in 2005, when he turned almost immediately post-election to the Big Bidness fever dream of privatizing Social Security, an issue almost completely ignored during the '04 campaign and quickly turned into a disaster which began Bush's long popular nosedive. Campaign rhetoric ain't worth whipped cheese, but in our shadow of a democracy, it's what people remember most.

Huckabee wins the GOP caucus with a much smaller turnout. While watching the pundit roundtable on Charlie Rose tonight, I noticed that MSM wisdom still doesn't consider Huckabee to be a serious contender over the long haul. Yes, he will not do well in New Hampshire, which has few social conservatives, but beyond that lies South Carolina which is, well, South Carolina. The new hope of the press and the Republican aristocrats is McCain, whose 4th place finish is being hailed as a dramatic comeback.