The election campaign . . . just prior to Iowa votes

Everyone, me included, has been outraged, bemused, incredulous, and downright disgusted by the level of discourse and lack of policy substance in the Republican presidential campaign thus far.

On the Democratic side, it was a higher level of discourse, but rather ho-hum until the competition between Clinton and Sanders heated up and they began differentiating themselves.

Frankly, however, here on the day of the first voting in Iowa, my view of the importance of what's been happening has shifted a little bit.    As messy as it has been, I do believe that issues are more clearly defined than they were at the beginning.

For Republicans, there is a clear division.  Will they go rogue with either Trump or Cruz, or be able to govern with experienced political operatives.?  The more moderate group needs to pick one of the four and get others to drop out.  Then they can concentrate on a two-way race -- pick one from column A (Trump, Cruz) and one from column B (Rubio, Bush, Kasich, Christie) that defines the two wings fighting for control of their party.

On the Democratic side, it's already down to a two-person race, with a clear choice between progressive idealism with Sanders, or center left pragmatism with Clinton.  That's a very good choice to have.   It's also a choice between taking a chance on Sanders' electability and a more sure thing with Clinton.

All in all, there's been an unprecedented interest in this race for this early in the election cycle, and I'm coming to believe that it has actually helped to define the issues and sharpen the decisions that now need to be made by the voters.

Let's see as we get the returns from the Iowa caucuses tonight.

Ralph