Finding the Narrative

Well, Iowa's done, as are Christopher Dodd's and Joseph Biden's campaigns to become president. They threw in the towel last night after failing to gain any traction in the campaign for the Democratic party nomination.

The new narrative percolating in the media is how Mike Huckabee's win in Iowa has thrown the GOP race into disarray. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?

We're one state into this campaign and the pundits are already spinning furiously over what Iowa means. Huckabee threw all his eggs in this basket and he's lucky to have won here, but it likely wont translate into any momentum down the road since he simply doesn't have the money backing to sustain himself going forward. Romney and Thompson both get to fight another day, as does McCain and Paul. Rudy hasn't even gotten into the fight, and his first real test comes in Florida. It looks like Romney is in trouble given he needed a stronger showing in Iowa, but even that isn't a fatal blow to his campaign. In other words, things have gone more or less as predicted and no one has taken a commanding lead here. There was no real change for the GOP and the candidates all get to slug it out for at least another state or two. I'm not sure the public wants order in this race - and 49 other states get their chance to weigh in on who should represent the GOP in November.

On the Democrats side, things are actually in disarray. Hillary came in third, with Obama winning handily. Edwards slid into second place just ahead of Hillary. The bottom dropped out for Dodd and Biden, but I'd expect to see Gravel and Kucinich drop out as well - leaving a three person race. However, the surprise here is who's got the momentum and just how badly this leaves the Hillary campaign. Considering how many people put her as the frontrunner, I'd say this counts as disarray. Obama's surging in the polls and Edwards looks like he's got some momentum as well.

UPDATE:
ABC is cutting three of the candidates from its next debates: Republican candidate Duncan Hunter and Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel.