Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
You can’t say we weren’t warned. All along, Iowa Republicans told pollsters in no uncertain terms that they wanted Donald Trump. And boy, they weren’t lying.
On a bitterly cold Monday night in the Hawkeye State, the results were so lopsided that several major news outlets projected Trump the winner shortly after 7:30 pm central time—before many caucus-goers even had a chance to vote. The speed at which the results were announced was almost shocking. As Yogi Berra might have said, “It gets late early out there.”
Put aside the ethics of calling an election before many participants have had a chance to weigh in. Believing anyone other than Trump would win Iowa was always the triumph of hope over experience. It required believing that all of the polls were wrong and something magical might happen.