CommenTerry, January 3rd, 2008
Perhaps the cable networks should be playing Kenny Loggins' This is It all day long, as the waiting is finally over for the presidential candidates from both parties. The moment of truth has also arrived for all the political junkies like myself -- who consider the U.S. presidential election process more exciting than the World Series, Super Bowl, and March Madness all rolled up together.
After a year of anticipation, enduring all the campaign rhetoric, and having to listen to various pundits handicapping the race, the voters will at last begin to have their say. After thousands of polls and hundreds of straw polls, the first poll that counts in standings will be conducted tonight in Iowa. Yes, the Iowa Caucuses will be underway in a matter of hours. For some candidates it will be start of something big, perhaps even their first step toward the While House.
For others, it will be the beginning of the end of their presidential hopes and dreams.
Many questions will be answered tonight, and some will go unanswered for several weeks. Can Mike Huckabee hold on and win the GOP caucuses? Which of the top Democratic contenders will emerge from the three-way logjam at the top of the most recent Iowa polls and win his or her party's caucuses in that state?
Will Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani still be the national frontrunners after tonight's results? How many candidates on both sides will make it out of Iowa still viable after tonight? Which, if any, will be mortally wounded? Who will be the biggest beneficiaries from the tonight's results? (They may not necessarily be ones who actually win).
Of course, the fun has only begun for all of us politicos. The nominating process for both parties will likely go on for at least another five weeks. Hopefully, for at least one of the parties, it will go on well beyond that -- perhaps even all the way to their respective convention. But, silly me, that never happens. It would be like like an NFL team going 16-0.
