Trump bought King Corn votes with promises of other peoples money and he still had his butt handed to him on the silver, not gold, platter.
Let that sink in Trumpster.
Zero ground game and still only 1` delegate behind your guy.
Chew on that.
I love how you tout that Trump’s zero ground game as some sort of positive. I thought Donald was in it to win it? Didn’t he also hire Santorum’s coordinator?
In the end, Donald filled stadiums where throngs came out to view the celebrity harangue and bloviate, while Cruz went from town to town (completed the full Grassley - all 99 counties), meeting the people of Iowa face to face, explaining his positions and policies and the people liked what they heard. He also had the best ground game and turned out the vote.
The better man won. Sorry if that sticks in your craw.
The delegate count is not relevant. No one even cared how many delegates were up for grabs until the media broke it out, and no one cares (or even knows) how many delegates are necessary for the nomination even now.
The significance of the caucus is simply optics and momentum. Trump is a brand, not a platform, and his brand is now tarnished because he did not win. I believe that New Hampshire is now a must win for him, and I concede that his win seems pretty likely given his big poll numbers there. But he has lost momentum and the aura of invincibility, and since he is a brand that is a significant loss.
Cruz guys like me can’t get too cocky about it because you’re right on the ground game point. Trump’s approach to the Iowa campaign was effective enough to collect 24% of the votes, and Cruz’s approach is not scaleable to the entire nation, and perhaps not scaleable to any other location. There is little evidence that the lengthy and expensive investment Cruz made in Iowa tells us anything about the future campaign.
But the simple fact is that the guy who calls himself a winner is *not* the winner today. The media is no longer covering him as a winner, and he’s not acting like a winner. I think he likely will be a winner in NH next week, but he’s damaging his brand, and his chances, even now.