The real story that nobody seems to be reporting on coming out of Iowa is that Bernie Sanders received 4% more of the final voting results than was predicted by every establishment polling aggregate.
The Huffington Post/Pollster had Bernie down by 3.1%
Real Clear Politics had Bernie down by 4.0%
And the “gold standard” of polling aggregates, Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight had Bernie down by 4.5%.
538 also gave Clinton an 80% chance of winning the Iowa Caucuses outright throughout January, and a greater than 90% chance in the 8 months before that. Unless something dramatic takes place in before morning, Bernie will end up tying Clinton in national delegates 21-21.
This means that Bernie Sanders has exceeded the predictions of the establishment polling agencies, supposedly the best experts in the world at this type of thing, by about four points. Clinton threw everything and the kitchen sink at Bernie in Iowa. She had the most professional organization money can buy. She likely spent far more than Bernie overall. She brought in legions of big name political figures to campaign for her, including a former president. And she and her surrogates went extremely negative on Bernie, even playing the “SOCIALIST!!!11zz” card. And still Bernie managed to virtually tie Clinton in Iowa.
This is not the first time Bernie has exceeded expectations either. In his 2006 run for the US Senate in Vermont, he received 8% more of the final vote than the polls predicted.
As we tried to tell people unaccustomed to an authentic candidate running a real grassroots campaign, there is an under-the-radar vote that comes here. Bernie inspires people by having a consistent track record of fighting for the same things (equality, justice, liberty) for decades. Bernie brings new people into the political process with far higher than expected turnouts. This is why we keep reminding others over and over again that if you want a wave election nationally that will be very good for Democrats (even potential to retake the House if enough people vote), get behind Bernie Sanders. He is the only one that can get all these people out.
“Don't underestimate me” -Bernie Sanders