The results are in and Barack Obama has “won†Iowa. Of course, as soon as I walked into a local caucus precinct tonight, I knew it.
At the Des Moines precinct I attended, over 200 people showed up to support their favorite candidates, almost triple the amount in 2004; 130 of them were for Obama. And during the part of the caucus where candidate supporters persuade and cajole each other into switching sides, there were no Obama defectors.
The significance? In the cafeteria where I sat, I saw a microcosm of America: young, old, men, women, black, white and brown, first-time caucus goers and longtime politicos. There was definitely energy in that room and it will be interesting to see how far that takes Obama.
Oh, and Huckabee took the Republican side. But considering the evangelical base in Iowa, that's hardly news.
I almost heard a collective sigh in Des Moines when I stepped out of the high school. Political eyes will be off Iowa for a while and this Midwest state can go back to the normal stories it produces; namely, septuplets and ethanol.
This article appears in Jan 2-8, 2008.