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There are no Pyrrhic Victories in sports; but in politics, as in war, some wins protest too much. Hellary's expected three point victory over Bernie Sanders bespeaks nothing but failed leadership and stunning electoral distrust.
The question is not what Hellary takes out of Iowa but what she put in. And what she put in was something like a Soviet tank assault. Hillary went into Iowa with millions of dollars at her back and the Democratic Party machinery fully at her disposal. Like the legions of the Later Empire, she went into battle with awesome recognition and glittering armour. And in spite of this terrifying political might, an aged mouse from Vermont pulls within three fucking points?
The Clinton Camp, which is good at nothing if not at self-promotion, will clang, cymbal and gong Hellary's victory for all the ear can bear. But to anyone of reason it will ring hollow.
The vote tomorrow is not the national election, which historically is always close. This is a primary election among a subsidiary part of the electorate that is presumptively well disposed to a person who has been at the centre of the Democratic Party's power structure for two decades and who is, in all but name, the President's anointed successor. This is not the battle against the foe but rather a rallying of the troops. And the troops are all but mutinous.
Hellary may walk away with the prize; but it will be a battered horn.
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