Marco

The only real winner in Iowa last night was Marco Rubio. Although he had a third place finish on the GOP side, his strong showing brings some sanity to the Republican race. The media loves Trump and Cruz because they fit the biased left-leaning narrative that the trained hamsters always use when describing the GOP—rich, arrogant white guys and/or bible thumping extremists. Rubio is considerably more difficult to characterize that was—although the hamsters will begin trying today. His immigrant story, classically American and middle class, threatens the Democrat narrative. I predict, starting soon, the media will begin to whittle down Rubio. But no less, it's encouraging to see a rational, mainstream voice emerge in the GOP race.

Before the results of the Iowa caucuses were tablulated, Bret Stevens wrote this:

The results of Monday’s Iowa caucus won’t be known until after this column goes to print. But here’s what we know already about the four top contenders. No prizes for matching names to descriptions:

1) A compulsive liar with a persecution complex, a mania for secrecy, and a bald disdain for rules as they apply to lesser people.

2) A bigoted braggart with a laughable grasp of public policy and leering manners of the kind you would expect from a barroom drunk.

3) A glib moralizer who is personally detested by every single senator in his own party, never mind the other one.

4) A Sixties radical preaching warmed-over socialism to people too young to know what it was or too stupid to understand what it does.
Such are the character traits of the candidates now vying to possess the nation’s nuclear launch codes. This being a free country, they are entitled to their ambitions. This also being a democracy, we are responsible for our political choices.

Stevens, of course, is alluding to Clinton, Trump, Cruz, and Sanders, and he is absolutely correct in his pithy characterizations. We are indeed responsible for our political choices. Rubio may not stand the test of time and he, like all politicians, has flaws. But at this point in the campaign for the presidency, he offers a clear (and better) choice to the gaggle of "assholes and assassins" that Stevens describes.

UPDATE:
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There a few mildly amusing developments in the Iowa primary contest (a virtual draw) between Sanders and Clinton. Like everything else that follows Clinton, we see:

• In six Democratic county caucuses, the winner was decided by a coin toss. Hillary won all six coin tosses—probability of that happening is 1.56 percent, just over 1 in 100. This would generally be considered a statistical anomaly, but with Hillary's proven dishonesty and her campaigns smash-mouth attitude, it seems mildly suspicious.
• The Democrat Party informed the Sanders camp that results from 90 precincts were "missing." Hmmm.
• Some Sanders supporters are alleging voter fraud.

This stuff is going to be hard to blame on a vast right-wing conspiracy.