U.S. presidential election (19): the previous, the next and the last contests
So, in the first state to have primaries, Ted Cruz beat Donald Trump in the Republican race and effectively Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tied in the Democratic contest. In a perceptive analysis of the Iowa results, “Guardian” correspondent Gary Younge concludes his piece:
“Last night’s results lay bare the scale and depth of the realignment that has been taking place within the country for almost a generation: a polarisation of left and right that has made elections more volatile, politics more gridlocked and discourse more shrill. A socialist is in the running for the Democratic nomination; Donald Trump could be president. If these are the things we are saying in February, imagine what we might be saying come the Democratic and Republican conventions in July.”
It’s now on to New Hampshire where it looks likely that Trump will win for the Republicans and Sanders will be the victor for the Democrats. It’s still very early days though and it may well be that the general election will be between Marco Rubio on the Republican side and Hillary Clinton for the Democrats – and the result could be close.
If this is the shape of the general election, then the White House would have either its first Latino president or its first female president which, coming after the first black president, would be another page in the history books. The whole world is watching …