As the first wave of results from Iowa began to pour in, a CNN panel began to dissect what they saw, with former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) pretty neck-and-neck. But that wasn't the real news of the day. What shocked those on the left was just how terrible former Vice President Joe Biden did in the rural state.
"Biden has a big problem. He has a big problem," Axelrod said. "His campaign manager some time ago said they would be viable in 95 percent of the state. They expected to do much better. ... He's dead broke and he needs to raise money and it's hard to raise money off an anemic fourth-place finish so he needs to revive himself in New Hampshire or this firewall everyone talks about in South Carolina may just not be there for him."
CNN Senior Political Reporter Nia-Malika Henderson reminded the panel that just a few weeks ago Biden's campaign was telling people they would come out of Iowa in first or second.
"That obviously didn't happen," Henderson remarked. "He likes to crow about polls, polls that show him beating Donald Trump, polls that show him viable in South Carolina, winning in South Carolina, doing well amongst black overs but I've been talking with some nervous black Democrats in the south. Do you want a candidate whose whole rationale is 'I can do well in these states that are down the line and not do well in states like Iowa?'"
Van Jones said what most Americans are thinking: when Biden is coming in with a little more than 15 percent of the vote and he has 100 percent name recognition, "It does change your view of him."
"When it's just ideally he might not do well in Iowa, he'll make it up later on. Now we're living in the reality of he fell down the stairs and I don't know how he gets up," Jones said bluntly.
This news comes as a surprise to Democrats and the Democratic media complex, but most of us who aren't in the Dems' echo chamber knew creepy Uncle Joe was going to flop. It was just a matter of who would come out ahead.