1. The national media doesn’t know squat. They didn’t get Huckabee’s appeal and mocked him incessently for his admittedly weird presser. In places in which they have no idea and couldn’t care less who Joe Klein is or whether the NY Times thinks Huckabee made a horrible gaffe they really don’t do a very good job of predicting results or interpreting events. And with due modesty, the voters don’t always pay that much more attention to conservative media.
2. People vote for people for president not a list of policy positions or resume points. Obama and Huckabee connect on a very emotional level. We forget that at our peril. (See #1)
3. A few months ago I was harping on “authenticity.” We may not like their policy positions but the winners tonight are not classic politicians (who seem to be very much out of favor).
4. It’s a long race and no one (other than Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, unfortunately) is out of it.
