Although the Iowa Caucuses results are still not complete at this writing, the following conclusions are clear:
The big winners are Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, and they now become the leaders of the two factions in the Democratic Party.
Joe Biden in 4th place and Amy Klobuchar in 5th place are on notice if they cannot do better soon, with Super Tuesday clearly their last stand if they do not perform much better.
Elizabeth Warren may have been 3rd, but failed to win any of the 99 counties, so she seems to be at a difficult time with New Hampshire coming up, and Sanders expected to win.
So it looks like the likely battle, subject to change, is between the oldest candidate and the youngest candidate in the field, with Pete precisely half the age of Bernie.
One is a non devout person of Jewish heritage who calls himself a Socialist, and the other is a devout Episcopalian who attends church regularly, and is gay and has a husband.
Buttigieg won the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage award as a high school senior in 2000, having written an essay on the integrity and political courage of then Congressman Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and met Caroline Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
This is certainly an ironic situation, that the two front runners are linked in this manner. And the fact that one of my contributors to commentary on this blog, D, supports Sanders while I support Pete is also of interest.
So the battle is on, and we shall see what happens!