Hard To Stop

David Yepsen, a political media icon of sorts in Iowa, predicts that Obama is going to be very hard to stop nationally now. Following Obama's impressive win in the Iowa caucuses, Yepsen sees a real problem for Clinton - he is not sure she can recover from this.

*Barack Obama’s big victory may well slingshot him to the nomination and the White House.  He comfortably beat the national  frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, who finished third.  She’s left reeling and the second place finisher, John Edwards, wound up exactly where he was four years ago: In second place.

*Obama’s victory speech was soaring, akin to the great Jefferson Jackson Dinner speech he gave in November.  Clinton and Edwards tried to put a brave face on things but there was no masking the hard realities they face. Obama's going to be a hard guy to stop.

*It is hard to see how Clinton recovers.  Too many Democrats have doubts about her electability and wanted to make a fresh start. It’s also hard to see how she what she can do in the 5 short days before the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.  In fact, there’s a danger she’ll go negative and sink deeper as she looks desperate.

*It’s hard to see how Edwards recovers. He needed a victory here, a showing better than he had in 2004, to ignite some national attention to his campaign and improve his fund-raising. He didn’t get it and he had a good base and organization in Iowa.  New Hampshire isn’t so strong.
Iowa was a battle to see who would become the alternative to Hillary Clinton.  Edwards lost to Obama.  The anti-Hillary forces are likely to rally around Obama, not Edwards.

Again, it may be far too early to write Clinton off. But if she suddenly goes into full negative mode, she may well sink herself. I've maintained that Hillary would be in trouble if she placed third in Iowa - if she loses New Hampshire as well, she could be in very bad shape indeed. (I'm also predicting that Mark Penn will be looking for employment soon, too.)