Hillary Clinton’s campaign team is casting her performance in the Iowa caucuses as a win, even though she is separated from rival Bernie Sanders by just a few hundred votes.
Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, praised the results of Monday night’s Iowa caucuses in which Sen. Clinton’s substantial lead is derived from her 45-1 advantage over Sanders in Democratic super-delegates, reports NPR.
The former secretary of state and first lady edged past the Vermont senator in a race the Iowa Democratic Party called the closest in its caucus history. Cruz told New Hampshire supporters he was like former Republican President Ronald Reagan, urging the state to help ensure his nomination by giving him a win in the February 9 primary.
“I remember saying to some friends as some of my colleagues in those years signed up for Gene McCarthy and I signed up for Robert Kennedy, saying I would rather have a pragmatist representing my ideals than an idealist representing my ideals”, she said.
“I can tell you – I’ve won and I’ve lost there”.
Clinton triumphed in avoiding a repeat of the 2008 Iowa primary, where she finished third behind John Edwards and soon-to-be President Barack Obama. In an upset victory over Donald Trump, Sen. Bernie Sanders – and his supporters – aren’t letting Iowa go without a fight.
“We had no political organisation, we had no money, we had no name recognition, and we were taking on the most powerful political organisation in the United States of America”, Sanders said.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton smiles as she arrives at a campaign event, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016, in Nashua, N.H.
Conservative and Democratic Harvard affiliates had mixed feelings about Monday night’s Iowa caucuses and their role as the 2016 Presidential race unfurls.
“A while back, he [Sanders] was 50 points behind and it was going to be a fait accompli that Clinton was going to be the [Democratic Party’s] candidate”, Drexel University Political Science Professor William Rosenberg told Sputnik.
Though Sanders fared well in Iowa and is nicely posited in New Hampshire, his hurdle is proving that he can appeal to more ethnically diverse electorates in later contests in places such as SC. Clinton and Sanders want to boost funding for Planned Parenthood, the health care provider that performs abortions and is under attack by Republicans who want to stop government financial support.
But the result has given momentum to the second placed Bernie Sanders an independent senator, seen as an outsider.
In effect, Republicans are having a primary within a primary to determine who this Plan C candidate would be.
As for Trump, despite the apparent strength he has shown in early polling, word is his New Hampshire base lacks organization.
CNN noted, “Campaigns are fueled by victories and Clinton’s muddled Iowa showing will leave her supporters, donors and campaign staffers without bragging rights, possibly dampening enthusiasm and further ceding ground to Sanders”.
Less than 24 hours after the Iowa caucuses, the candidates and national media headed to New Hampshire and the snow moved in.
In New Hampshire, Clinton trails Sanders, who is from neighbouring Vermont.
