#potus16

Heres how I see it: Ted Cruz definitely won this state, but Rubio definitely took more of a victory than Trump. Trump took a huge loss in Iowa.  Donald Trump, since he announced his candidacy, had been the top dog, not afraid to say whats in that unfiltered mind of his. He’s been gaining momentum because of the confidence he shows to the conservative voters, not just because he's a world renowned businessman. While some of the American people find his comments unnecessary and somewhat dangerous, his target audience praises him for “saying what everyone else is thinking”. He’s been mostly the top dog in the polls with lots of media coverage throughout the world and, whether you like it or not, Trump is always being talked about. Positively or negatively, a comment about Trump is still spreading the message of Trump. For us liberals, it was painfully inevitable that Trump might be winning that nominee. But then the results for the Iowa caucus came in. 

Ted Cruz won by an astonishing four points! Not less than one, not even two--four! I am sure people, let alone Trump and his team, were shocked by the numbers. Another surprising thing was the Rubio was only behind Trump by less than one percent. This showed America that Trump is not as almighty as he looked in the media and that there is not just one, but two candidates that he needs to compete against. 

Rubio took a huge win especially after his speech when the results came in. I have to admit, I was moved. The way he speaks is very inspirational and something people look for in a president. While I do not agree with his policies, I admire his passion and love for this country and that definitely showed in his speech. I predict that after that, he is going to start surging in the polls and rival Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. 

It is true. After a few hours passed midnight CT(Central Time U.S.) the Democratic National Committee arrived at the final score: 49.9% for Clinton and 49.6% for Sanders. While Clinton’s campaign called their victory, Sanders’s team remained optimistic about their tie with the top runner of the 2016 presidential race. The caucus was nail-bitingly close with only a 0.3% difference. But what exactly does that mean for Sanders and Clinton?

Nine months ago, Sanders had a very small name recognition while Clinton’s well organized team kept her winning with a +48 point lead. Everyone thought Clinton had Iowa in the bag especially since Iowa is one of the swing states. This trend would continue for months with the gathered data. What Clinton and her campaign team might have not anticipated was the overwhelming amount of growing supporters, educating other voters of Sanders’s not so impossible policies. While Bernie was going up in the polls, Hillary still maintained a healthy lead. However, once caucus day arrived, those statistics became completely irrelevant. Sanders and Clinton were neck and neck for almost the entire Iowa Caucus,for me, it was lightweight anxiety provoking.

Sanders won. Although he was still behind by 0.3%, the fact that he grew from close to nothing percentage to virtually tieing with a well known politician like Hillary Clinton shows two major things: Bernie Sanders is electable and Bernie Sanders is popularity will only keep growing. Throughout the race up until February 1st, Sanders has been criticized for having all these ideas, yet not enough popularity according to the polls to really win the elections. Because Clinton has already started to presidential race career since 2008 coming in second place to Barack Obama, everyone already knew her name and knew she was on top to being the democratic nominee.

I think because of this, she had the upper hand during the early stages of the race: everyone was still holding on to the idea of the first women president and how 2008 wasn’t her time, but 2016 will be. Iowa also seemed like an undoubtable win for Clinton. Almost everyone was expecting her to take a landslide win, but the numbers were too close and it completely changed the game for the Clinton campaign.

I remember two year ago I was at a prestige Asian Women Network award ceremony with some of the best female Asian leaders across the world. Sitting in my assigned table, I heard everyone’s excitement about voting for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and having the first women president right after the first black president. At the time, this seemed like a moment that would go down in history. Fast forward to today, and we’re seeing the excitement for Hillary diminish and shift towards the political revolutionary Bernie Sanders. This is why Clinton lost.