I think Keith was REALLY off last night

[K8-EEE]

He repeatedly said that Edwards' rather amazing 2nd place finish was "sharing Hillary's disappointment/failure" or words to that effect, when it seems TOTALLY OBVIOUS to me that Edwards had to come from WAY BEHIND to beat the Clinton machine, when she was 20 points AHEAD just a few weeks back.

So if she came way DOWN and he's ASCENDING that's a LITTLE different....especially when you factor in the big difference in the money spent, ESPECIALLY CORPORATE MONEY!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. How much did Edwards ascend?

Obama ascended. Clinton dropped. Did Edwards change that much?

[K8-EEE]

5. Yeah! He did!

I've been donating/following his campaign for about 6 months. In Sept it was

Clinton 36 (-7 vs. last poll Sept 17-24)
Obama 22 (+2)
Edwards 13 (+1)
Richardson 12

So wouldn't you say finishing 29% was a come-down for Clinton, and 30% a big finish for Edwards?

[TahitiNut]

9. In December, Edwards was consistently polling 6-8 points behind Clinton.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/ia/iowa_democratic_caucus-208.html

[Zynx]

2. Edwards led early in the year.

Hillary topped him and then Obama had a two month surge that knocked Hillary down.

[K8-EEE]

13. Hillary didn't top him last night though

So if she's still in it so is Edwards, you'd never know from the Newz however.

[Zynx]

31. He put everything in Iowa and didn't win.

Hillary put a relatively moderate effort compared to Edwards. She has huge national support. He has nothing like that.

[K8-EEE]

32. We shall see!! I think it's a big loss for Hill, coming in 3rd.

Like, BIG! Romney & Clinton were the big losers here.

[Zynx]

33. Romney lost big, Hillary lost mildly.

This third place stuff is nonsense. That was a tie for second.

[K8-EEE]

34. She lost by the same margin Romney did, didn't she?

I begin to think you are a Hillary supporter, LOL.

[Zynx]

35. I think she would be fine, but my point is that she didn't put in the proportionate

effort that Romney or Edwards did. Hillary did not run an Iowa-centric campaign. Do I think she is probably going to lose the nomination? Yeah, but I don't think it is quite as devastating as people make it out to be and Edwards is done.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Sounded like a sports commentator to me.

[LisaM]

4. Keith doesn't seem to care about Edwards

He rarely covers him on his show. Does he dislike him?

[K8-EEE]

8. It seems like he does. .

RARELY seen him covered on Countdown.

[NYCGirl]

14. Elizabeth Edwards has been on Countdown two or three times recently. NT

[bdamomma]

15. I will be curious to see what Keith says about Edwards tonite

since they are now in NH getting ready for Tuesday. The media always treated Edwards like a step child. All candidates should have equal coverage.

[Double T]

6. Edwards 2nd place finish in an unimportant caucus was great!

Next week we will have insight as to which candidates are for REAL. KO's off.

[SoCalDem]

7. "Polls" said she was that far ahead, but until the voting actually happens,

polls are meaningless.. For edwards, it had to have been a sad night. He has "remained" in Iowa since the LAST election, building his firewall, and Clinton's money ate into his support (pretty fickle , Iowans, aren't they?) and then Obama "caught fire" and beat them both..

[K8-EEE]

11. I don't think beating Hillary was "sad"

I thought he had a really strong finish, again, especially factoring in the money discrepency with the other campaigns. Apparently they are getting lots of donations today (including mine!) which is hopeful.

Still I find it odd since the finish was a tie for second why it's the Hillary v Obama show all over the media today when she actually got beat by Edwards!

[Occam Bandage]

28. Losing to Obama was. He built his entire campaign around winning Iowa.

Clinton built a nationwide campaign and only decided to try for Iowa in the last few months. She can afford to lose IA to Obama. Edwards can't.

[SoCalDem]

30. The sad part was that he spent so much time wooing them, and they still

did not make him "first".

[madinmaryland]

10. I think Keith was upset at having to share the stage with tweety.

and listen to tweety's inane comments.

[K8-EEE]

12. Tweety was actually really saying a lot of dumb stuff to the point

of being comical....what is his fixation with Obama's dad being Kenyan?

[madinmaryland]

16. I think it really irks Keith to be stuck with someone making such

idiotic comments. Remember is slobbering over Thompson and his cologne. :puke:

Keith wants to do real analysis, but is stuck with tweety.

[bdamomma]

21. I don't think Keith likes playing second fiddle.

[madinmaryland]

27. Especially with Tweety. I think he would be ok with Brokaw.

[ecstatic]

17. but Edwards practically lived in IA, and him and his wife insist

that he is the most electable in certain towns in the south (wink, wink).

[K8-EEE]

20. Aside from Edwards, what did everyone think of MSNBC coverage?

I swear I thought I saw Keith give Tweety a couple of LOOKS like....omg did you just really say something so stupid.

Tweety's "did the earth move for you?" thing had us in stitches here, wtf???

[bdamomma]

26. I really didn't watch to much of MSNBC Chris Matthews just talks to much.

I think sometimes when I see Keith and Tweety together, Keith does have that look like "why me".

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

18. He got stuck co anchoring with Matthews. He should be able to be the single anchor.

He didn't look very pleased to be having to go to Noron in Iowa for her poll break downs. Nor did she look happy to be reporting to KO at the anchor desk.

This isn't to excuse his less than astute remarks. I believe that he is so constrained and distracted by Matthews blathering next to him that, unfortunately, he phones it in instead of being more analytical.

Of course, this is an emotive rather than cerebral response I'm having, so could be way off. :shrug: MKJ

[Occam Bandage]

19. "Amazing?" Come on.

He was the early prohibitive favorite in Iowa (to the extent where Clinton strongly considered not even campaigning in IA), tailored his entire message to appeal to IA, and spent all his time (and all most of his extremely limited funds) on IA. He's badly behind in every other state; he needed a win here to keep himself viable. He didn't get it; Obama won handily and captured the cameras with his speech. He's trying desperately to paint his loss as a "victory," but it's over for him. This race is Clinton vs. Obama now.

[K8-EEE]

22. She's third, and it's all about her and Obama??

No, I'm sorry, I think the second place means something. He beat her, that's a fact.

[Occam Bandage]

25. While his 2nd-place finish is a nice feather in his hat,

it doesn't take him a single step closer to being the nominee. Edwards is badly behind in funding, in polling, and in infrastructure in every state from here on out. He built his entire campaign around winning Iowa. He was the odds-on favorite to win Iowa for most of the race, until he fell apart near the end. He bounced back a bit, but couldn't quite pull it off. He lost, and so he's trying to paint a loss as a win in hopes of a miracle.

The second place does mean something: it means that Edwards is not going to be the nominee. He doesn't have the nationwide campaign Hillary and Obama do; he can't bounce back.

[book_worm]

23. The truth is that Edwards up to a few months ago was leading in Iowa

and then he lost his lead and had to come back again--not quite making it.

[K8-EEE]

29. A few WEEKS ago JE was 1 point above Richardson!

come on, going back before she started her campaign and using those numbers is really not fair. Hillary fought hard in IA, she poured a lot of resources into it and she still couldn't beat Edwards who is running with a fraction of the $$.

[AzDar]

24. I agree. His demeanor/commentary was uncharacteristically disappointing

Kinda sucked, really.

[AzDar]

36. He has redeemed himself w/ tonight's 'Countdown'...says he was disturbed (paraphrasing)

by his colleagues' 'faux surprise' at Obama's win.
JRE was his guest btw!
Cool.:applause:

[cynatnite]

37. Keith was fine, IMO, and Rachel Maddow stole the show...

She outshined everyone and put Tweety in his place more than once. It was very gratifying to see. Keith was average, IMO, and that's because Rachel was so damn good.