Headline (and First Paragraph) Reaction (IA Aftermath Edition)
First, the headline from The Ticket: Iowa’s razor-thin result indicates a fierce battle for conservatives is ahead.
No, no it doesn’t. This is simply sloppy thinking that confuses the Iowa caucus with a representative sampling of the national GOP selectorate. What’s coming next week when Romney wins NH by a large margin? Will the headline be “NH’s Result Means Nomination Fight Over?”
Yeesh.
Second, the first paragraph:
Iowa may not pick presidents. It may not even pick Republican presidential nominees. But Iowa most certainly resets the nomination contest, something its voters did again on Tuesday with the state’s closest caucus vote in history.
What in the world got “reset” yesterday? We already knew that a) Romney was the front-runner and likely nominee, b) that Santorum was the latest Not Romney, and that c) candidates like Bachmann, Gingrich, and Perry were in trouble. (Oh, and that Paul is an interesting novelty candidate).
And which of these factors were reset because of yesterday?
Double yeesh.
I would keep reading, but the headline and the first paragraph of this piece has utterly destroyed any confidence that I might have had that reading more would provide any useful insights.
I’d go so far as to say that — in about a month — Romney’s showing in Iowa actually be used to demonstrate how over the primaries already are.
It may even be come to be taken as a *bad* sign for the Obama’s re-election chances.