and what Obama's success there means for the country. If Bill Bennett, lampooned in a related post in the War Room, had been thinking at all, he might have had some words for how Iowa, derided for weeks by left and right-coast pundits including, at times, Shapiro, as too white and out of touch to be representative of anything, managed to endorse a liberal black man so resoundingly.

No mistake, Obama dominated his opposition, taking the monied east and central counties. Edwards won only in the impoverished south and other rural areas, while Clinton took only a few northern counties and the western strip along the Missouri River, where Democrats are so scarce they have to clutch each other for comfort.

People in Iowa have talked for years about the two Iowas, an idea that seems lost outside the state. Far from the opinion of another poster, Republicans don't outnumber Democrats in Iowa, in fact they come in third. The largest political group in Iowa is, or was, Independents. Last night, the longest lines at Democratic caucuses were Independents re-registering as Democrats to vote for Obama.

The numbers tell the story. Predicted to have a record turnout of over 200,000, the Democrats eclipsed that by themselves, pulling in 234,000 voters, more than twice the Republicans' 112,000.

The other story is of the difference in style and worldview between the two winning candidates last night. Obama is every atom 21st century, while Huckabee appeals to the one-step-from-lynch-mob 19th and early 20th century mentality that plagued the South and Midwest and still exists in places. But it's obviously diminishing.

There are still hard questions to be asked about Obama's real policies, but no arguing with his appeal to those who hope for change. As other posters have noted, protect him, but celebrate what he stands for, and please, save a good word for Iowans and what they accomplished last night. Not Bush, not 9/11, this may have been the real beginning of the new century.

Definitely one of Shapiro's better stories; too bad it had to happen now. I guess, like everyone else, he never understood the Iowa caucus until he saw one. A bizarre mating ritual, to be sure, but somehow, like the original town meetings, more evocative of the original intent of democracy than a simple election.

Next time, though, get out of Des Moines a little more. Like all the others, Iowa is a fascinatingly diverse state; it's just a different kind of diversity. You can't know real American politics until you've been to an Ames Drinking Liberally.

Socially, at least, the Sixties were a much nicer period, when men and women actually liked and respected each other. You're talking about the battle of the mid-70s to mid-90s, twenty years of Steinem-induced man-slanging that culminated in the Hillary-influenced PC period of 92-94, and that was one of the factors in Gingrich and his buddies taking control of Congress and enabling the pillage that ranged unchecked until 06.

So, no reason to fear a Clinton back in power at all, unless you're a man, or a responsible woman, with a memory.

In the same way that last week's hurrah for Reagan legitimized rightwing despotism, Obama has now embraced the mixture of religion and politics that was the sole slimy domain of the religious right. Now, if Huckabee is legitimately attacked for claiming to be the candidate of God, his people can reply "What's the difference? Obama does it too!"

We started this primary season with half a dozen good, principled candidates. Is it too much to ask that we be left with even one? What will this guy do, or not do, to get the nomination?

not so much for what it says but how. "John McCain's gleeful proclamation on Tuesday evening that he is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination could only have intensified the despairing rage of his party's far right." "Certainly there will be many elected officials, bureaucrats, officeholders and assorted pork-choppers...." Hilarious.

Now that George Soros offers grudging approval, if Clinton is nominated I may campaign for John McCain, if only to balance out Ann Coulter.

but somebody should. I sometimes think Keillor's channelling his voice.