Dept. of reductionist political analysis:

“In the end, Iowans voted for a smile.”

Granted, Huckabee is temperate, at least in comparison to John “Hundred Years’ War” McCain and Rudy “We’re All Gonna Die” Giuliani, but “Huckabee’s 11th hour conversion to all-positive campaigning” was, well, maybe a little overrated.

Briefly: Obama is good at this. There’s no good way of giving a concession speech that’s not really a concession speech, so Clinton punted. I expect more of the same. Huckabee is going to get eaten by his own, sacrificed to a failed philosophy; Romney just has to be patient. Obama unsurprisingly got 57 percent of the under-30 vote, Huckabee more surprisingly got 40 percent of the same on the Republican side. John McCain is in GREAT SHAPE for someone who just finished fourth, behind a dude who’s most famous for being the third-best DA on Law & Order.*

*Update: Unless you count Sam Waterston. I haven’t seen the new McCoy DA episodes yet, but I’m guessing I can safely drop Thompson to fourth.