Much Ado about Iowa

I love the hyperbole of the primary and caucus season.

During the course of all of the non-stop coverage before, during and after the Iowa caucus the 24-hour news channels blabbered on and on about candidates spending in excess of $200 per vote, Nanny Clinton paying for babysitters for caucus goers and about how important the results of this first test of the candidates on both sides would be.

The one important tidbit the the chattering class overlooked in all of this babble, was the simple fact that historically Iowans get it right less than 50% of the time! Meaning that the "winners" of the Hawkeye state caucus rarely go on to become their parties nominees.

All that was really achieved by this hoopla was a thinning of the herd of no-chancers like Senators Joe Biden (D-Delaware) and Chris Dodd (D-CN) who have now grasped that harsh reality and dropped out of the race. I wonder who will be the first among the Ron Paul (R-TX), Duncan Hunter (R-CA) set who will gravitate back towards obscurity.

Don't count out Hillary or Rudy quite yet, although it appears that Fred Thompson may need the paddles and John McCain (R-AZ) may need to battle Barack Obama (D-IL) for New Hampshire independents and work his maverick magic to hang on.