Osay can you see: From Ottumwa to Oskaloosa, Osceola to Osage, Ossian to Odebolt — Iowans spoke. ADVERTISING Osay can you see: From Ottumwa to Oskaloosa, Osceola to Osage, Ossian to Odebolt — Iowans spoke. The rocket’s red glare of
Osay can you see: From Ottumwa to Oskaloosa, Osceola to Osage, Ossian to Odebolt — Iowans spoke.
The rocket’s red glare of this bombastic Republican campaign instantly illuminates New Hampshire (Feb. 9 primary), South Carolina (Feb. 20 primary) and Nevada (Feb. 23 caucuses).
And just like that, the race changes.
Donald Trump led the national polls, he dominated the national conversation. But after Iowa Republicans got a crack at him, he didn’t look so invincible. America awoke Tuesday to some wry questions: Was Trump ever as “yuge” as he claimed? How will he wear the “loser” label he imposed on so many others? And as the 2016 GOP campaign exits Iowa, will he now be recast from king to court jester?
Trump didn’t live up to his billing. Props for the night went to winner Ted Cruz, a renegade who’s unpopular with establishment Republicans, and to Marco Rubio, who won the Hawkeye State trophy for finishing better than expected.
Rubio’s strategy of modest expectations and affable outreaches to all factions of the party now looks shrewd. More Republicans now might look at him as the best candidate who actually could be elected in November.
This is the moment when several of the also-ran Republicans begin asking whether 2016 just isn’t their year. Mike Huckabee gamely volunteered Monday night to be first out.
A smaller field — my, those crowded debates (not to mention the undercard debates) could be frustrating — will help focus this race.
Iowa’s job was to winnow the candidates, to begin downsizing a field that has kept the vast center of the U.S. Republican population’s bell curve from gravitating toward one potentially electable nominee.
But winnowing works only when the chaff realizes it isn’t the wheat. Given the large number of candidates and this year’s relatively compressed calendar, the mainstream candidates who have no realistic prospect of being that nominee should swiftly accept that fate.
We aren’t calling out anyone in particular but, well, you know who you are.
The risk is that if every candidate who appeals to mainstream Republicans stays in the race, then no one who appeals to mainstream Republicans will have the throw weight to counter Cruz and Trump.
Republican voters throughout the country deserve a race more focused than these earliest contests. Look at it this way, GOP candidates:
In 2012, the general election outcome was decided by 5 percentage points or less in only four states. Every other state went comfortably for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney.
Now, Google the phrase “swing states 2016.” You’ll find a Politico map that identifies, in corn-stubble yellow, this year’s seven swingiest swing states. Three of the seven are Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, states where Republicans make their choices this month.
So, candidates, if you can’t come close to winning these three states when only your fellow Republicans are voting, what are the odds you’ll win them in November when Democrats, independents and other voters will choose their man or woman for president? Not promising, eh?
— Chicago Tribune
