Well.. that's why they leave storybook endings for storybooks. My dream of watching John Edwards board a plane from Des Moines to New Hampshire with a 5 point victory and a full head of steam might just live in one of those storybooks, BUT I can be rather satisfied with the results.

What does 2nd place in Iowa mean? Well, with regard to raw delegates and numbers, not much. There really isn't much difference between 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place ---about a one delegate differential in each dropping tier. But Edwards victory over the Clinton machine and his ability to compete with Obama mean that the little guy, the people's candidate, the man on a mission can still swing punches even if large corporate interests, individual donors with padded overseas bank accounts, and megastar talk show hosts don't keep his campaign fodder afloat.

Edwards should be able to convince a few more unions to come to his rescue--unions that were most definitely holding out to see if he was still legitimate from their past endorsement in 2003-2004. Additionally, Edwards will be able to recruit more volunteers, activists, small to medium level donations, and indirect surrogates because of this forced/gained respect in Iowa. That translates into more media coverage with a better spin. Instead of the down-and-out boy, Edwards is becoming the giant killer in much the same way that Huckabee is enjoying his new sound bytes. If Edwards can stay in the top 3 in New Hampshire and do well in Nevada and hold ground in South Carolina, then he still has a good chance of remaining a legitimate candidate going into the new "super dooper tuesday" in the first week of February.

Break out your bumper stickers, baby.... it's show time!
Sadly, Ohio has to wait until March to be a player in the primaries... but don't you worry, we'll make the difference again in November.