So the Iowa results are in and Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Barack Obama are the big winners. This will surely shake things up a bit considering the enormous amount of money Mitt Romney dolled-out on his campaign (the ratio of money spent by Romney compared to Huckabee is roughly 17:1) and Hillary Clinton’s once commanding lead in the polls.
What happened?
Simple, the Republican caucus-goers voted for Huckabee’s “values.” Christians accounted for more than half of the Republican voters, citing Huckabee as someone who shares their values. Meanwhile, bringing about change was at the forefront of the Obama campaign, and was touted by Democratic voters as the most important attribute in a presidential
candidate.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the upcoming primaries. Clinton and Obama are virtually neck-and-neck in New Hampshire and another poor showing will likely put a pretty big dent in her campaign. I expect she’ll change gears a little and peddle more “change” to the voters. For the Republicans, Romney and McCain are about even, and Huckabee will face a greater challenge. Social and religious issues will probably take a backseat to national security and taxes.
What about the other candidates?
Republicans: Rudy Giuliani devoted little time to Iowa, choosing instead to focus on the larger electoral states like Florida. I believe his popularity will increase significantly in the weeks to come. Fred Thompson, who surged at the last minute in Iowa, will more than likely concede the nomination within the next month or so and endorse McCain.
Democrat John Edwards although taking second place in Iowa, essentially tied Clinton. He’ll continue to take votes from Hillary with his own change message. I believe he’ll ultimately concede and back Clinton.
The coming weeks will be very interesting indeed!
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