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January 4, 2008

At Least They Got The Memo

Two men heard the message from the voters yesterday, and that message was not Please Continue. Chris Dodd and Joe Biden go back to the Senate after becoming afterthoughts in Iowa, winning no delegates and barely registering on anyone's consciousness:

Veteran U.S. Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd dropped out of the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday after placing a distant fifth and sixth, respectively, in the Iowa caucuses.

Biden of Delaware and Dodd of Connecticut offered perhaps the most experience among the Democratic contenders, having each served in Congress for more than a quarter century. Both chaired powerful committees.

But they came up far short in the race for the White House with polls showing Americans demanding change.

Dodd, at least, left his mark on the race, especially on its presumptive nominee. In the November debate, it fell to Dodd to criticize Hillary Clinton for her support of Eliot Spitzer's plan to issue drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. She reversed herself in response, creating a huge gaffe that she exacerbated afterwards by reversing herself twice more in the following few days. Like Al Sharpton in Iowa who reduced Howard Dean to a sputtering fool in a late debate, Dodd may have played giant-killer, as Hillary's campaign spiraled into a succession of unforced errors, including citing Barack Obama's kindergarten essays in criticizing him.

The best that can be said about Joe Biden's run is that he knew when to end it. Even at that, he seemed to be living a fantasy life as recently as a few days ago, when he tried to convince a reporter that he had a real shot at garnering 15% as a fourth-place candidate. Instead, he came in fifth with 1%, only a point behind the fourth-place Bill Richardson. The delusion appears to have ended for Biden, which may be the best moment he's had on the campaign trail for the past year.

Now, we just need the rest of the field to recognize reality. The Democrats have a three-candidate race, and outside of Iowa it's going to be a two-candidate race. The only reason for the rest to stick around is to have ringside seats and a place to watch the returns.

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