This kind of shallow journalism needs to die along with the "political establishment" which is, unfortunately, far deeper and more complex than this author understands.

No numbers, no understanding of any kind of nuance, no consideration that perhaps a candidate placing 3rd or 4th here could perhaps perform differently in another state, no historical context and no definition of what the author means by "the political establishment," which certainly includes the millionaire lead "journalists" -- TV talkers -- of the major broadcast networks, all served up while people in Iowa are barely getting home.

The rush to define an absolute winner after one caucus eleven months before the general election is a sickness that the traditional media must GET OVER before they can become "our media" again.

The political establishment of todays Dems and Republicans focus not on what the will of the people may be but what the lobbyists pay for. I would also hope that every incumbent Senator that has been in office more than 2 terms would be deported from the Senate office building. The Senate is the body most tyrannical against We The People.

What do you mean that Hillary was supposed to win? Was it because you (ABC) gave her so much more coverage than any other candidate, even before the electoral process started? Is that why she was supposed to win? How disgusting that the media is part of the elite corporate establishment that thinks they can buy their favorite (puppet)candidate!

It may refer to Sen. Clinton's early lead in the polls in Iowa and elsewhere, as well as her campaign's off-the-record "spin" that attempted to paint her as the frontrunner.

Resume flaming.

"Iowans Reject Political Establishment"

Give me a break, That can only happen by rejecting any candidate from those two parties.

I think that although Iowa is primarily made up of "white conservative Christians" it is no surprise that Obama beat Hillary Clinton, because Most "conservative Christians would rather be ruled by a Black Man than any woman. Sexism is more prevalent than racism. The man has to be the head of the family. Hillary had little chance in Iowa. Wait til the race comes back to the East Coast.
i wish

If Iowans had _really_ rejected the establishment, they would have voted for Ron Paul in significant numbers. They would welcomed third-party candidates. They would have rejected everybody and demanded candidates worthy of the presidency. But no, they played least-of-evils in an evil two-party system. However, it should be noted that they had the interior fortitude to vote down the phoniest people running.

The good people of Iowa need to be congratulated for giving America one of the most interesting contests. The fact that Obama is the winner, is a sure sign of a great future for America. It is only fitting that having disgraced the Democratic party for so long, Hillary has now disgraced herself with a royal trouncing by Barack. The people of Iowa have proved that running on nothing gets you nothing. Hillary tried to con her way through based on three things: 1. Her husband's name. 2. The fact that she is a woman and that a lot of women would vote for any woman. 3. Slandering and name-calling Obama by claiming that he is inexperienced and naive - when in fact those would be flattering terms to describe her. Hillary has a long history of failure, dishonesty and incompetence - and has finally flip-flopped herself into a flop. Both Hillary and Edwards ought to get real and get out of the race. They are not in the same class as the next President, Barack Obama.

The Iowa vote won't sway us one bit. Iowans may want to fault the establishment, just who do they think Obama is. He is the Chicago establishment, I don't thnk the guy was born in the U.S. How can he run for President. He is the co-authour of the Dream Act, to give children (well they are adults) is state tuition, who are these children....wll, the children of the illegal aliens. Your tax money at work to pay for illegal alien kids to be educated to put your child out of a job. Obama hasn't done a thing to help stop in loss of jobs to China, to stop the loss of people's home, when they have lost their jobs to China or illegal aliens, If he wins the Presendency, will he swear on the Koran or the Bible. Obama has done nothing to free our u.s. border patrol agents Compean and Ramos. He has dont nothing to stop the flow of drugs, drugs, drugs flowing into our country. He has done nothing to stop the high cost of gasoline. When George Bush was elected President, gas was 22-25 dollars per barrel, now it is $100 per barrel. Oprah, you did wrong for your country and our country when you asked this guy to run...Are you expecting to be an Ambassador to a country somewhere for this? I don't care if Obama is black, white or purple, he is not the man for the job.
As of right now, we don't have a good candicate. But as an Independent, we will before the election bring our our candidate who will win over the people and our country can be put back to rights again.

ok first lets deal with the lies there by Jo T

From Wikipedia's entry on the DREAM act.

The sponsors are listed as both democratic and republican, all are experienced senators.

"On October 18, Richard Durbin,, along with Republican co-sponsors Sen. Charles Hagel and Sen. Richard Lugar, introduced the DREAM Act as S.2205" In fact Obama isnt even mentioned in the text at all.

Then lets deal with the just plain stupid part.

I dont care if he takes the oath over the Koran, The Torah, The Bible, or the 2008 Almanac. Why? Because the truths that he is speaking are worth so much more then the lies sold to us by Bush after he swore over the bible.

The meaning of swearing over a book is to have some sort of ritualistic hold over the oath taker, so that he will uphold the words that he is speaking. So happens that the bible was important to most presidents to date, but as our country becomes more secular lets hope that it wont turn into a permanant litmus test the way this poster would use it.

Both Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee are entrenched with the power elite in their Washington parties. The idea that either one of them is outside the "establishment" or represents real change is laughable.
Research the connections of their top policy advisors as well as the way they've been "puffed" by the MS media.
They're part of the establishment!!
Nice try, ABC. But I'm not falling for it.

jo T: I would be embarrassed if I were you. Try to at least post something with a tinge of fact and intelligence. It would be magnanimous of Hillary to wake up to the fact that American's aren't going to buy her "politics as usual" and try to disguise it as 'change'. She tried the past few weeks, but it was a no-sale. What's she to do in the future? All the shady 'back door' attacks have failed. She can't run on experience since she has less actual time in an elected legislative office than Barack, and American's just aren't buying her time as first lady as viable experience. I would like to see her pull out after NH and throw her weight toward Senator Obama. It would also be grand to see Bill Richardson do the same. I think Obama/Richardson would make a hell of a team.

Just because these two candidates won the first battle does not mean they're going to win the war. History showed that only one president ever won Iowa and went on to win the president race, and that's George W. Bush in 2000. So why all the hype that winning Iowa will guarentee a victory for the nomination? I think American has to wait and see in the upcoming month before jumping to any conclusions who won each party's nomination.

Whether or not Barrack Obama wins the democratic nomination for president or goes on the win the presidency, I am just glad that in my lifetime, I was able to experience a predominantly all- white state caucus support an African American candidate. It shows America is growing up. Many countries have already elected minority (or women) candidates to lead. It's about time we caught up with the attitudes held by the rest of the world. Obama is a good man with a good heart. Good people can sense that. That's why he won in Iowa. He could make a great leader for sweeping change, which is exactly what the people of our nation are crying for. The time has finally come.

Iowans aren't predominantly conservative Christians. If they are, they don't seem to be within 50 miles of Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Davenport, Des Moines, or Council Bluffs. They sure seemed to prefer Obama's liberal policies...

Hillary didn't fail from sexism--she failed because she is phony. The Iowa caucus shows candidates who are phony--it is why Iowa's caucuses are actually significant and why it's important for a small state to start things off.

If it could just wind up as McCain vs. Obama--then we'd know the country was heading in the right direction.

The people who want to throw around hate and insults are a minority in this country--they are just louder than most (aka Ann Coulter)

What a joy that all the candidates jumped on the CHANGE bandwagon so quickly. Looks like a winning theme to me as well...

For all of you analyze a politican's success based on whether or not they leave their spouse for wrongdoing, shame shame. Look at yourselves. You don't run a country like a marriage. I guess our divorce rate can be explained those who bail. I think it takes a tougher person to wade through tough times, than to bail. It's called "fight or flight." Just don't tell me you are a Christian.

How many Democratics in Iowa voted for both Obama and Huckabee???? I heard of this happening on a mass, planned scale. That groups voted for Obama then also went and voted for Huckabee (because they believe Obama can beat Huckabee in the General Election. There was no cross reference checking on who voted when and where, for which the Liberals took advantage of this. That is why there was a record turn out because people voted more than once.

Not being in Iowa, and reading all of the above comments, I just want to ask one question? Is it true that there was no cross check of whether people voting had previously voted in the other poll... either Dem or Repub?..
This makes one pause for yet another dishonet moment in politics...

Is this the only way to win, always about cheating?.. and dupping others?.. Hopefully somewhere, sometime in America, we can find our souls again.. and that it is alive and well in the hearts of our citizens. This is my hope, and I am sticking with it!!! no matter the odds. P.S. by the way, Hope and change begin at home.. we can institute new ways of living and contributing to our Nation without having the president of our choice win!! Ever thought of that?.. It is called.. becoming more of a concerned citizen and helping give back what we have all received living in the greatest nation in the world.

God bless America.. and we NEED blessing. We aren't running the universe, and we need to remember it.