I did not expect that. The outcome in Iowa really affected my expectations. I still carry that baggage. My optimism is quite tempered.
That said, I feel pretty good this morning!
I really thought Carli would do better, but I had no doubt about Trump.
They said at the beginning to watch the returns in Laconia. 6 Wards in the NW part of the state. They came in very early, and soon after that they called it for Trump.
They had Kasich in second. I think they called the top seven in order. And we’re talking the first 30 minutes of the returns.
So now we are back to, ‘Can we believe the polls?’ Was IA just a freakshow?
In both states we saw heavy turnout-—much higher in NH than IA. However, in both states we saw Trump vastly exceed expectations about numbers! Recall we had a poster here whose name I can’t recall who assured us that Trump couldn’t beat Huckabee or Santorum’s numbers. Well, he did, handily-—yet still lost IA. However, Cruz seriously underperformed in numbers in NH. So, that little piece of evidence tells me The Donald is real. That he got beat by an exceptional ground game in IA, even though he got his voters out (as people said he couldn’t). Now, Fox said that he left about 24% of his voters “on the table” and could have gotten more out. He still wouldn’t have won IA, but he would have beaten the Santorum number by about 20% if he had-—incredible.