Nobody had predicted what actually happened last night at the Iowa Caucuses.

You have seen the headlines: Barack Obama rolled to a victory in the Democratic caucuses with about 38 percent and Mike Huckabee sailed into first place on the GOP side with about 34 percent of the caucus goers' support.

Thus, Obama and Huckabee were the big winners.

But the Iowa Caucuses are often more about who lost than who won. Hillary Clinton came in third among the 240,000 Democratic voters, a fraction of a percentage point behind former Sen. John Edwards. Mitt Romney came in second among the 100,000+ Republican caucus attendees.

The turnout, in Iowa terms, was very heavy. About double the number of Democrats turned out as had been expected. Something on the order of 25% more Republicans trekked to their local caucus than the Iowa GOP had predicted.

A year ago, Sen. Clinton was seen as marching through the process as the certain nominee. "Inevitability" was the word. Obama had burst onto the scene, but most political geniuses believed him to be unable to sustain the early excitement he was generating.

A year ago, Gov. Huckabee was … invisible. Sen. John McCain was the GOP front-runner and Gov. Mitt Romney was using his enormous personal fortune to build a team designed to lead his march to victory.

McCain's campaign collapsed in mid-year. He has enjoyed a resurgence over the past month and has decided to make his stand in New Hampshire next week, not Iowa. Without campaigning here, he came in fourth with 13 percent, a handful of votes behind Sen. Fred Thompson (for whom I am a paid advisor).

Romney spent something north of $7 million here in Iowa but could generate support from only about a quarter of the caucus goers.

Clinton pulled out all the stops to win in Iowa including bringing former President Bill Clinton not just into the fray, but pushing him onto center stage in an effort to sway Democrats to her side.

Obama portrayed himself as the agent of change. Clinton ran as the voice of experience.

Change won.

Huckabee, as recently as six weeks ago was an asterisk in public polling. His sudden emergence as a serious candidate was met with a furious counterattack by the Romney campaign which directed reporters to any number of issues and actions Huckabee had supported and taken as Governor.

About a third of Iowa Republican caucus goers were not dissuaded from supporting the combination of good humor and deeply held Christian beliefs which Huckabee portrayed. Continued...