Edwards-Clark or Clark-Edwards?

The title is actually intended to mock the proclivity of the press for taking any event and projecting it linearly into the future: Dean is definitely down, but not out. Also, I remain firm in my conviction that Kerry will not be the nominee (though I will support him if he is). Overall, it’s definitely tough to attribute Dean’s dramatic fall to anything other than the rash of negative press he got, unfairly for the most part (I’m giving Iowa Democrats enough credit to assume that the Club for Growth ads didn’t play a role in Dean’s defeat). And I’d like to attribute Edward’s strong second place finish to his lack of negativity vis-a-vis other Democrats so far, but perhaps that’s too optimistic.

So what does it all mean? Beats me. Where’s the popcorn?

On second thought, I’ll venture a call now: Edwards or Clark will be the nominee, and the winner will choose the loser to complete the ticket. Perhaps my predictive skills will surpass those of Atrios. On the other hand, my Condoleeza Rice Resignation Watch is now in day 175, so my prognistications are questionable at best.

AB

P.S. Just a week ago, Matt Y. predicted that “Dean’s moment of inevitability would be followed by an inevitable moment of evitability which would be followed by victory. Now it really doesn’t look inevitable right now, but I stand by that prediction.” Query: Did Matt predict the Iowa outcome, or not?