A huge Kerry win. What does it mean? Not much. He's expected to do well in NH, a New England state. A week from today he looks bad if he loses a neighboring state. Edwards should compete with Clark in South Carolina and Super Tuesday may mean something this year. Dean could gain back momentum if He wins next week, we shall see. Check out what's being said on his blog:

Hello Family of mine,

Given that I have enthusiastically supported the candidacy of Howard Dean for over a year now I wanted to share with you some thoughts on this morning after.

Prior to yesterday's caucuses I was beginning to have some doubts about how his campaign was going. One of the most disturbing things recently was the apparent use of Jimmy Carter as a campaign prop. He said he was invited to Georgia but even Carter stated that it was Dean who invited himself. Another thing is the grass roots nature of the campaign, which was suppose to be its strength. Word on the ground in Iowa is that many supporters of Dean were bombarded by contacts from Dean people for days leading up to the vote. Some even went as far as to describe it as "harassment". I am sure this was just youthful exuberance. However, the results demonstrated that this was an amateur operation that seems to have been driven by hype rather than depth.

All these things could be excused, given the new freshness of the campaign and its search for its legs but there was one last straw which I feel will be the most profound thing to happen to his campaign. I don't know if you got to see it but after learning the results in Iowa Dean spoke to his supporters. There was no dignity, no maturity, no inspiration, what transpired appeared nothing short of loony. It occurred to me that this guy does not wear well and will get creamed in the general campaign (if he gets that far).

I do not discount the very incredible things Dr. Dean has done for this race. He has a wonderful grassroots organization (albeit a little immature), he gave the democrats real spine (they all talk like him now) and he made being anti-Iraq war acceptable rather than a marginal position. I hope as this campaign goes on he gets credit for all these things because he deserves it.

What do I do now? I WANT TO BEAT BUSH! Well I will sit on the bench for awhile, perhaps Dean with make this a transforming event and come out a new man (I doubt it). One of the people I felt I could not support (Gephart) has dropped out, that is good. The other one, Clark, I will work to also finish him off. Bush will have a hard time running against Kerry as he has a very compelling story and has a very dignified presence.. Edwards I am not sure about yet, but I feel I could support him enthusiastically.

Sorry if I disappointed you with this information, but this morning I feel strangely liberated...back to work.

Posted by virtuald at January 20, 2004 09:50 AM

And:

Gov. Dean: I'm a 62 year old retired blue collar, viet-nam, desert storm vet. I'm not very articulate. so will do the best I can to give you and our campaign a thought to ponder. I think your concession speech last night hurt us much more than our loss in Iowa. The message was good but the delivery was awful. The shucking of the coat and rolling up the shirtsleeves, screaming at us and America was dreadful, What you need to shuck is that image we saw last night. Not very Presidential.

And:

Howard Dean's got to stop running like this is a statewide campaign in Vermont! I tried to be as objective as possible watching the speeches at the conclusion of the evening. Kerry, Edwards and Gephardt were most gracious, cool, calm and in control. For Gephardt, with whom I've had a number of disagreements, it was the "last hurrah" and he handled it well.

Dean came over to me as a "whirling dervish". Stop with the taking off the coat and rolling up the sleeves. You looked like a jerk in comparison. The hoarse shouting was too much as well. Sorry to say, what really struck me was how supportive Kerry's, Edwards' and Gephardt's spouses were. This plays well in most of the country. Dean's "list" of states he's going to win sounded shrill. This approach is not only grating on me, but obviously a lot of Iowans are sick of it as well.

Losing sucks, huh Deaniacs?

Looks like I got that prediction wrong.