Raucous Caucus

I watched the footage from Iowa last night with Sonya, who is visiting, and who has been out of the country for the last six months, so she was actually getting acquainted with the race for basically the first time. I had been, of course, amped to see what happened in Iowa, but with a feeling somewhat akin to dread. I have not been excited about Hillary Clinton and, frankly, the novelty of having the governor running for president is wearing a bit thin, particularly considering the total lack of responsiveness we have gotten from the campaign staff whenever we try to cover anything. Plus, Richardson's campaign stresses out my armchair quarterbacking self because every time I watch him I think about all the things his staff should be telling him to do and say that he isn't doing or saying.
He was almost absent from TV coverage last night, so first thing this morning I looked for Terrell's column and was not disappointed. Steve answers pretty much any question one might have about what this means for Richardson, and provides a great sense of color and nuance from last night, so check it out.
But for me, last night was all about Obama. As many people did, I became excited about Obama after his speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention, but, as we've seen, he's been a bit up and down since then. Last night, his speech had that same effect on me, as it obviously did on others, this glimmering of hope that perhaps the next president could be a very difffrent leader, not to mention kind of person, than what we've seen in this country since its inception. I'm pretty jazzed at the moment, and can't wait to see what goes down in New Hampshire. Here's Obama's victory speech from last night if you missed it. And here are some other good links today:

John Dickerson's analysis on Slate of Barack's impact, and his support from youth voters.
I liked what Ariana Huffington had to say about the meaning of Obama's win.
And, Heath's analysis of Richardson's fourth-place showing and why the guv should drop out if he really cares about coming back to NM. (Except Heath doesn't use the word "care," that's me).