The Iowa caucus is a tangled web of absurdity. But the winner in this case is simple:
—Sanders & Buttigieg will almost certainly get the same number of national delegates (TIE)
—Sanders got 6,000 more votes in first round and 2,500 more votes in second round (SANDERS)
—Sanders & Buttigieg will almost certainly get the same number of national delegates (TIE)
—Sanders got 6,000 more votes in first round and 2,500 more votes in second round (SANDERS)
If you value delegates more than votes, it's a tie, so the tiebreaker is the vote count (Sanders wins)
If you go by vote count, Sanders wins
"State delegate equivalents" are internal & mean nothing in the context of who won.
If you go by vote count, Sanders wins
"State delegate equivalents" are internal & mean nothing in the context of who won.
If Sanders and Buttigieg do officially each get, say, 11 national delegates (in March, finally), and acknowledge that Sanders easily won the popular vote, there is no viable argument that Sanders did not win Iowa.
This is why the campaign, after three days of waiting--not the night of, before any results were in--declared victory.
Either it's a tie w/ a tie-break for Bernie, or it's an outright win for Bernie, regardless of SDE count (which he could still win).
Either it's a tie w/ a tie-break for Bernie, or it's an outright win for Bernie, regardless of SDE count (which he could still win).
The final results will come when they come. Media should acknowledge the winner now, and retract any previous reporting that incorrectly deemed Buttigieg the winner, and we should all move on.
