It would be sad if it wasn’t quite so funny. In the race to declare success without knowing the result of the Iowa caucuses, Pete Buttigieg is the winner. But then, as campaigns prepare to release their own data, in lieu of any official results, the real victors are confusion, Donald Trump, and Michael Bloomberg.
‘Quality checks’, ‘inconsistencies’ and ‘technical difficulties’ are the theme of the night. People are already saying that ‘caucuses’ are clearly now outdated and must be abandoned, but the problem seems to be the toxic combination of old electoral practices, half-thought through reforms, and bad new technology.
Trump is already crowing on Twitter. Bloomberg hasn’t yet said anything, but as the richest candidate in the Democratic primary, he will be licking his lips. His decision to skip the first four states seemed high-risk: ‘going for the inside straight on the river card’, as one pundit put it, using a poker analogy.
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