Tonight’s victory speeches include the “political revolution” Sanders called for and Trump admitting that his ground game in Iowa wasn’t up to snuff. The crowd chanted “USA” during interludes in Trump’s speech, and Trump himself played around with the “nice Trump”/pugilist dichotomy. “I’d like to congratulate the other candidates,” he said at one point, quickly parrying: “Now that I got that over with! …” As he heads to South Carolina, surfacing the “nice Trump” and running a tight ground game may be critically important. Although Trump leads in South Carolina, Cruz’s following among evangelical voters may sway votes in numbers larger than polls indicate. That’s what happened in Iowa. (I’m also struck by how domestically focused Sanders’s speech was compared with a large focus on trade and world influence in Trump’s speech.)
