This is a test; this is only a test

When the 32-hour day arrives, I'll have fewer of these "I didn't have time" entries.

OK, so new Hampshire didn't go as the pundits expected. So? That makes them wrong, by my reckoning, um, let's see, carry the seven, divide by ... uh, say. . . 2 out of 2? But they still have jobs, and people still listen to or read them. My, my.

And what are we to make of what we've seen so far, the 2.45% or so of America represented? (That's an exaggeration, as not all of Iowa was heard from.) Well, first, I think, that Mitt-boy is in deep do-do. Second is that John Edwards, a fine man and maybe the best candidate out there (at least with Dodd and Richardson gone), is probably effectively dead, no matter his willpower. Third is that Barack Obama is learning that it is unwise to count on college kids, whose attention span embarrasses mayflies.

At this point, I'd say the Democratic nomination is between Obama and Clinton, and wide open. Neither brilliant nor original, but there it is anyway. The Republicans are now going to have a tough time stopping McCain. A lot of the folk on the ground always liked him, and none of the others is palatable to any but a small claque. With none of those others crashing the sound barrier anywhere, who else is there to go to? Huckabee is a 9-days wonder at best, Giuliani has stayed low for so long that he'll be unable to stand up straight again (though nothing that man ever did is straight), Thompson has missed too many naps, and Mitt's bought the biscuit two states in a row, including one he was supposed to walk away with.

All for all, that's too bad, because McCain is, I reckon, the most dangerous candidate for the Democrats to run against. He's just so aw-shucks sincere that no one ever looks closely enough at what it is that he's sincere about. ("Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran . . . .")

Well, you have been warned.

technorati tags: Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson.