First off, kudos to the Iowa Democratic party for a great web page that gave a running total of the results. So simple to do and it worked so well. (The Iowa Republican party web page wouldn't even come up for the longest time, and then had no numbers - sad.)
Ok, so Obama blasted to a strong 1st place, 7+% ahead of Edwards. This is gigantic, this race is now wide open. At a minimum it is even between Obama & Clinton. And depending on how the press plays Edward's finish, he remains a serious contender.
We've got 3 strong candidates, all of them liked by most of us, and with different approaches to how to govern. I think we'll have a really good primary, one that helps us figure out where we want to take the country, and how.
It's a great time to be a Democrat.
Now to how this will play. Obama's win is not a little win, it's a very clear victory. So that will be the big story. But Edwards should be able to get mileage because he beat Hillary. If it was Clinton/Edwards/Obama then he would have a rough time as Obama has a lot more money and momentum. But he can ride the "beat Hillary" story.
Now lets look at the Republicans. Poor Republicans...
Here's the problem for them - Huckabee scares the Republican leadership, possibly more than any Republican since Teddy Roosevelt. So the leadership, pundits, etc. are going to be fighting with a large part of their base. That's devastating for a party.
And then there are 4 candidates in 10 - 13% basically tied for 3rd place. For all of them they have a good reason to stay in the fight and go for 3rd to be left over after Huckabee & Romney wipe each other out. So this means they remain with a 6-way race.
This leaves every substantial interest group in the party with their candidate and 5 others they hate. The party's going to be in shreds.
And lets end it with this observation From TalkingPointsMemo
Beyond who won on each side, there's a very big partisan message out of tonight. Just under 220,000 Democrats caucused tonight. About 115,000 Republicans did. That is a very big vote in itself.
The Republican's had every bit as close a race with an even clearer choice between candidates - and that motivated half as many people? I think that comes back to more go when they are choosing who is best than when they are choosing who is least worst.
I love it...