I think McCain will be the story tonight. He didn’t even try in Iowa and he was declared dead a few months ago. A third-place finish will be solid for him. He’ll get all kinds of great press for his strong showing sans campaigning. I think he will beat Romney in NH. Mitt spent a fortune in IA and still might not win. With a resurgent McCain, Mitt really needs a win in IA, even if it’s a narrow one.
Rudy who?
Rudy 9/11. America’s Major.
The great thing about the Thompson campaign is that it finally got him off of Law & Order. It was wonderful to see some new episodes last night without him 
Third with 20% = a story. Third with 12% = a footnote. But the story will be the actual winner, especially if it isn’t a squeaker.
Either way, if Romney loses tonight, he’ll lose in NH as well.
Then it’s Roundheads v. Royalists, GOP 2008 version!
Fred Thompson is denying that report now:
Pastors who support Huckabee have been receiving anonymous warnings about their tax-exempt status and how it could be revoked and they be jailed for publically supporting Huckabee. That link is to Talking Points Memo, but it appears to just be the AP article in its entirety.
NBC is projecting Huckabee as the winner of the Iowa Republican caucus.
BBC is reporting Huckabee the winner, too.
CNN has Huckabee and Obama winning.
Huckabee and Obama on BBC, too. Sounds like the caucus is over.
Grampa Fred looks to come in 3rd, which is actually a surprisingly good showing for a campaign that’s seemed to be dozing in its golf cart the last six months.
BBC was just saying McCain has ended up in third, but I did not hear who was second.
I can just hear the howls from the old-guard silk-stocking Republicans. How are they going to stop Huckabee now?
Easily, probably. Winning in Iowa is by no means a guarantee of anything.
Watch and learn. 
The way they always stop the candidates they oppose: push polls, whisper campaigns, swiftboating and the like. By Super Tuesday, Huckabee will be painted as a corrupt womanizer with connections to the Mob, or worse.
I expect the establishment Republicans will try to keep Fred Thompson in the race as long as possible, to try to undercut Huckabee’s support. (Divide and conquer, y’know.) Don’t think it’ll work, though.
It’s kinda funny to me that some of the Wall Street Republicans express horror at Huckabee’s religious convictions (what a nut!) yet they’re perfectly willing to accept a devoted Mormon. A more cynical soul might believe that as far as religion is concerned, Wall Street just mostly wants to make sure the Republican candidate worships at the altar of tax cuts for the rich.
No one wants to win this thing.
McCain got beat by the three-toed sloth of indifference. Call that and underwhelming performance.
I know Giuliani didn’t campaign here, but Paul got 2 1/2 times as many votes as he did. That shows he is a complete non-entity at this point. It’s hard to see how he can just get creamed like this and still have people wound up to vote for him in FL.
I expect Romney to now attack McCain hard in NH and Huck will be largely ignored by the “real” candidates for a while. But then he’ll cruise to easy victory in SC and at some point he might just become dangerous, especially if McCain and Romney both stay in the race for a long time.
I wish to avoid unseemly gloating, so I’ll just keep to discreet chortling…
‘Tis a fine pickle the corporado Pubbies find themselves in, lately Ol’ Huck has been making noises like Huey Long with better suits, executive pay, corporate greed, lions tigers and bears oh my!
I think he’ll come around, he’ll have to tone it down if he wants those big bucks. But he’s definitely not Our Sort of People, the spoon in his mouth comes from K-Mart. Which means a lot of hedging our bets money for the Dems. The don’t *dare * attack him on religious grounds, but they will politely refrain from noticing when somebody else does it.
I suspect Mitt won’t have to spend any more of his own money, he’s pretty much all they’ve got, and of course they’ve always thought that Mormons are mainstream Christians, got a whole bunch of their albums, hey! Donny and Marie, can’t get more American than that! I mean, they’re not Episcopalians, or anything, but still.…
Christ, what an imagination I’ve got!
And it’s Royalists v. Roundheads in the GOP!
By the time this primary season is over, there’s gonna be a nationwide shortage of popcorn and lawn chairs.