Well, the counting’s done. Two men with a strong connection to hope came out on top in the 2008 Iowa Caucuses.
Democrat Barack Obama wrote a book called the Audacity of Hope and then made hope a central theme for his presidential campaign. His hopes for a Caucus Night victory were fulfilled. For the second time John Edwards finished second in the Iowa Caucuses and Hillary Clinton, the candidate who has led in most national polls, wound up in third place.
Almost immediately after the results were final Joe Biden and Chris Dodd announced their exits from the race. Neither claimed more than a percentage point of support last night. Bill Richardson claimed to be part of the "final four" with is fourth place finish.
Switching to the Republicans and returning to that theme of hope, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee — a native of a town called Hope — won the Republican contest here. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney finished second.
It is unclear just who won third place as Fred Thompson and John McCain were knotted at 13 percent with a few precincts yet to report results after midnight. Ron Paul received 10 percent support. Rudy Giuliani garnered just three percent. Attendance at last night’s caucuses beat all previous records — smashed might be a better word. Almost 240,000 Democrats and 124,000 Republicasn turned-out. That is far more than turned out in 1988, the last time Iowa saw competitve races among Republicans and Democrats running for the White House.