Lol, Clinton had campaigned there, albeit intermittently, for a decade, still had all her contacts from last time, and had the Democratic establishment behind her. She's had years worth of free publicity, and Senator Sanders has been barely been an afterthought in the media until the last few months.
Half of Iowa defied the media, the party leadership, and said "No!" to one of the largest, and most lavishly funded, political machines ever to set foot in their state. Half of Iowa said "Yes!" to the campaign that the establishment has tried to ignore, and which is funded by the small donations of the people.
Half of Iowa voted for the campaign that generates its own buzz, and which doesn't need publicity, and establishment endorsements, handed to it as an entitlement.
All of the nation got to see that Secretary Clinton's campaign couldn't put down the upstart rebellion of the Sanders campaign. Combine that with the ongoing FBI investigations into the Clintons modus operandi, and ethics, and then add in a likely defeat for them in New Hampshire, and we'll see that adding up to the Sanders campaign being portrayed in a more positive light by the media.
The party establishment will look rotten to the core if they continue to ignore the importance of the enthusiasm of this part of the party, and that of Independents who are now willing to vote for a Democrat. They must begin to weigh how the party will fare with Clinton at the top of the ticket, vs. with Sanders at the top of the ticket.
A Clinton that already has 60% of the voters seeing her as dishonest, that the FBI wants to see indicted, will not bring out the droves of Independents and new voters that we must have to win in the swing states. And that won't win us the close elections for the House and Senate, or win us back the local offices. The party establishment will be seen as clearly having a choice here. They can keep their fingers off the scales, or they can risk being seen as willing to crash and burn our chances in November because they can't think outside the box.
I'll spell it out for them. For whatever reasons, Secretary Clinton is basically incapable of ever co-opting the vast majority of Sanders supporters. So when they crunch the numbers for winning swing states, prudence dictates that they should allow for a massive Republican turnout (look at Iowa) to keep Secretary Clinton out, and a depressed Democratic turnout as many of these new voters just won't show up for a Democratic candidate who looks like part of the problem.
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