Congratulations to Senator Barack Obama, who won a strong victory in the Iowa caucuses tonight. It was big win for Obama in the first contest of 2008, and his strength appears to have cut across all sorts of demographic boundaries. But the biggest boundary Senator Obama crossed was one that has cursed this country since its founding: that of race. For a black man of mixed racial and cultural background to put together a message and an organization to win a wide victory in one of our overwhelmingly white "heartland" states is simply a stunning, historic event. Obama deserves to be applauded.
He is not my candidate - yet. Hillary Clinton simply cannot be counted out on the basis of a strange, non-democratic, proportionally-weighted "vote" - not with her energy, her ideas, her experience, and her guts. I believe she is the best Democratic candidate in the race. But this race just got a lot more interesting, and I have to congratulate my Democratic friends who support Senator Obama. It was an amazing victory.
Congratulations to John Edwards on second place, as well. I hope he stays in the race for the next round. He's been my second choice for a while now, and it's fascinating to see his populist message connect with Americans who find themselves on the bottom of the wealthiest society on earth.
The Republicans, meanwhile, are in disarray. Mike Huckabee's huge victory - he destroyed Mitt Romney by double-digits - has the Republican establishment in full freak, and it's a joy to watch. And look at Ron Paul: the last numbers I saw had him over 10 points, way ahead of Rudy Giuliani, the former frontrunner. Wow. It's wide open over there, going to New Hampshire.
