First Read is a morning
briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's
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Why Clinton's apparent win feels more like a loss
Who knew that Donald Trump's defeat last night
in Iowa would be only the SECOND-most dramatic story of the evening? The
most dramatic one was the announcement by NBC News, just before 4:00 am
ET, declaring Hillary Clinton the apparent winner on the Democratic
side, with Clinton getting 699.57 state delegate equivalents to Bernie
Sanders' 695.49, with 2.28 still outstanding. Yes, a win is a win for
the Clinton campaign. And yes, that razor-thin margin points to Sanders'
limitations in states other than Iowa, New Hampshire and Vermont. But
there are three reasons why this apparent victory for Clinton feels more
like a loss. One, there's already controversy, with the Sanders camp
alleging that due to Iowa Democratic Party mismanagement, reports were
late coming in from about 90 precincts, per NBC's Danny Freeman. And in
an interview with NBC's Kasie Hunt, Sanders didn't rule out challenging
the results. Two, winning essentially by one vote (err, five state
delegate equivalents) instead of 1 percentage point, denied Clinton the
opportunity to use ANY win as momentum heading into New Hampshire, where
Sanders enjoys a sizable lead. And three, if you don't want to take our
word for it, here's the attitude inside Clinton Land. "Clinton advisers
… said they did not know if a significant staff shakeup was at hand,
but they said that the Clintons were disappointed with Monday night's
result and wanted to ensure that her organization, political messaging
and communications strategy were in better shape for the contests to
come," the New York Times writes.
Click here for the full article.
Source: NBC News
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