"Thank You, Iowa"
EDITORIAL Thank You, Iowa THE WEEKLY STANDARD is a magazine of its word. Three weeks ago, we made the case that the country deserved to be liberated from the Clintons and their brand of...
...Angry Democrats who wanted a candidate who shared their rage had such a fellow in John Edwards...
...It’s fashionable to look down on the Iowa caucuses...
...It was a good week for them, and for the country...
...That’s wrong...
...Younger women did so overwhelmingly...
...And what of Barack Obama...
...Meanwhile, Democratic women rejected the faux-feminism of Hillary Clinton and preferred Obama...
...We are confi dent your brethren in other states will fi nish it...
...He ran (if one can put it this way) a pretty much color-blind campaign, and Iowa Democrats seem to have rendered a pretty much color-blind verdict...
...Now, as we prophesied in an earlier editorial, “The ‘fun part’ for the rest of us will be watching the bitter infi ghting among the Clintonistas as the wheels come off Hillary’s campaign...
...We’re going to start drawing a contrast, because I want every Iowan to have accurate information when they make their decisions...
...Well, over 200,000 Iowans made their decisions—and fewer than 3 in 10 wanted Hillary as their nominee...
...He won in a state with a very small minority population...
...You have begun the job...
...So, to the Iowa Democrats and independents who caucused in such numbers for Obama and even—this hurts—for Edwards, we say: Thank you...
...And we applaud the people of Iowa for stubbornly insisting on making up their own minds...
...They turned out to prefer a Republican who was outspent 10 to 1, but who connected with them...
...In sum, Iowans turned out in huge numbers to pick the classiest candidate on the Democratic side, and an appealing underdog on the Republican...
...Senate...
...We promised to be the fi rst to say something we are not accustomed to saying to the Democratic party—thank you...
...We’re by no means convinced we would have put Mike Huckabee ahead of his competitors in the GOP fi eld as Iowa Republicans chose to do...
...In a democracy, that’s a rather large part of politics...
...But after practically decamping to Iowa for the past four years, Edwards came in a distant second...
...Clinton will undoubtedly be on the attack against Obama in New Hampshire...
...William Kristol...
...Last week, Iowans rose to the occasion...
...And a calm one...
...Iowa’s voters actively engaged in the electoral process...
...But we applaud Huckabee for his industrious and savvy campaign...
...In December, in Iowa, she forecast that the assaults would begin: “Well, now the fun part starts,” she said...
...Three weeks ago, we made the case that the country deserved to be liberated from the Clintons and their brand of politics...
...He beat Hillary Clinton...
...Meanwhile, we shouldn’t leave Iowa without thanking its citizens for more than apparently sending Hillary Clinton on a path back to the U.S...
...And, who can’t like the fact that on both sides of the aisle last Thursday the “inevitable” candidates went down to defeat...
Vol. 13 • January 2008 • No. 17
