I admit I am left wondering, what if Iowa could count votes

[dsc]

The Iowa fiasco hurt Pete in two ways. One it denied him of being called the winner, which he was, on the night or at least the morning following the caucus. Two, Klobuchar wasn't outed as the 5th place finisher she was allowing her to surge in likely cost Pete a victory in NH. Had he won the first two states, would he have done better in Nevada? South Carolina? Had more ground organization and ads in Super Tuesday states? We will never know. But I do know Iowa's ineptitude, and that is what it was, was costly both to Pete and to our party. I literally teach the kind of math needed by Iowa to high school seniors. If I can and they can do it, Iowa should have been able to.

[jimfields33]

1. When Bernie decisively won Nevada the knives went out in full force

When Biden won South Carolina the coronation began. Nothings fair in politics.

[NurseJackie]

2. ...

[madaboutharry]

6. "...the coronation began."

Go tell that to the voters of South Carolina who decisively gave Biden a landslide victory on Saturday.

That is not called a coronation. That is called voting.

And yes, Pete Buttigieg got caught in other peoples' incompetence in Iowa. He showed us all that an adult doesn't point fingers and blame, whine about unfairness, or lash out. Instead they look at reality and accept what is before them and make mature decisions. I will always love Pete.

[OhZone]

3. I really wonder -

if they had a normal primary instead of a caucus, would Bernie or Pete even have won?

[genxlib]

4. This...

[dsc]

7. New Hampshire had a primary

and Pete nearly won that against not one, but two next door neighbors.

[jmg257]

5. I wouldn't feel too bad about it. Yes it was a fiasco. Pete & bernie were neck and neck either way.

Amy did well in NH because of her awesome debate...could be reason she did not do so well in NV? Pete really hit her up at the NV one, so I feel her knocked her down a few pegs.

Supposedly Pete did well in Iowa and NH because of voter demographics. Vote counting there likely had little to do with the big picture.

[BeyondGeography]

8. I am left wondering why Iowa should ever matter again

Candidates collectively spent over $300 mn. there, campaigned for the better part of a year (some even longer than that), did something approaching 1,000 live events, and the end result was...forget it.

[thesquanderer]

9. Pete's press out of Iowa was great. I doubt it would have been much better...

...if he had more quickly been called the unambiguous winner... Even the night of the caucus, it was clear he had wildly exceeded most people's expectations and either won or essentially tied. He got great coverage from Iowa, I'm not sure how much better it could have been if more accurate numbers had been called more quickly.

Not being called the clear winner probably hurt Bernie more than the ambiguity hurt Pete, because unlike Pete, Bernie was widely believed to be a likely winner. It's not just how you finish that matters, it's also how you finish relative to expectations, and expectations for Bernie were higher than expectations for Pete.

[AGeddy]

10. Iowa will never be taken seriously in future campaigns again

If they don't get rid of the caucus and go to a primary, nobody will care about Iowa anymore. Candidates will spend all their time in NH and SC.

And the DNC should take a hard look at having NV and SC go first and toss NH and IA into the later states.