[Alberta's Child]

I heard Russert on Imus this morning, and I actually think he had one of the most intelligent takes on the whole thing. A couple of key points:

1. The Iowa caucus was "big" in that it effectively ended the campaign of one candidate (Gephardt) and that it showed a serious lack of appeal in the Midwest for an "angry" candidate (Dean).

2. Despite Kerry's strong performance, he has an uphill climb over the next few months because he'll have a hard time winning any primaries in the South.

3. Lieberman is going to be the next Democrat to drop out of the race.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Interesting.

If Lieberman drops out, and with Gephardt already gone, that does seem to leave the South wide open for Edwards. If Edwards can survive NH, he could go on a roll.

Then again, I heard last night that no one has ever won the nomination without finishing first or second in NH. On the basis of his IA victory, you have to assume Kerry will finish in the top two. That means that Edwards would have to beat out Clark, the current front runner. Things are very fluid and it could happen, but it'll be a wild week to come!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I forget who said it last night on MSNBC but Dean's necktie was said to resemble a tourniquet...