Look at the numbers:
Obama took 38% of 239,000 votes cast on the Democratic side: 91,000
Huckabee took 34% of 120,000 votes cast on the Republican side, for about 40,000 votes.
Were this the national, this would be a landslide for Obama. And (as George Stephanopoulous said last night) a complete and overdue "repudiation" of the Bush/Cheney administration.
Even if you add together the votes from the top three GOP candidates, Obama all by himself would still win by about 5%.
This is the real news from Iowa. Obama’s challengers — Edwards and Hillary — committed early, ran hard, and (in Hillary’s case) had all the resources they could ask. Edwards in particular distinguished himself by forcing his rivals to define themselves on a number of difficult issues, particularly health care, and deserves great credit for forcing the Democrats to get serious.
But here’s the point: it’s possible Edwards or Hillary could win over a divided Republican field this year, but it would be a narrow victory. Edwards would bring out the right-wing attack machine (witness their focus on his hair) and Hillary would unite the right. Only Obama offers the chance at a landslide able to change the political landscape forever.
He knows this. He often hints in his stump speech of a desire to win big. He’s been attacked by lefty bloggers lately for bringing right-wing framing into some discussions (such as Social Security). But clearly, his blend of charisma and strategy is working — and to truly remake the politics in this country, isn’t he right? It’s bold, but really — don’t we need a landslide? A progressive Democratic landslide?
Get ready, folks. I hear a rumbling now…
Kit Stolz 
One of the writers on a site I blog for talked a about Obama’s win. Of course he first had to explain was a Caucus was to our readers, lol.
Honestly I hate to play the race card but I’m very surprised to see Obama win in a state like Iowa. Maybe the world isn’t as racist as I thought. I’m feeling like if he can win there he can win anywhere.
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I know what you mean. Somewhere I recall reading a study that found that people in homogeneous communities such as Iowa can actually be less racist than more mixed communities, simply because it’s rarely if ever an issue in their lives. (I’ve looked for that study, but unfortunately can’t find it.)
But, to put it bluntly, since Nixon’s so-called “Southern Strategy” of covert signaling to the bigoted was put in place by the GOP, I think the racist vote has gone mostly to Republicans. If Obama wins the Democratic base, picks up his fair share of Independents, and brings new people to the polls, he stands a good chance of winning — with the possibility of a landslide.
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