The results in Iowa’s democratic caucus came down to a coin flip Monday night, with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in a virtual tie, an early victory speech from Clinton, and an unexpected turnout for Sanders. Fresh off the caucus and one week away from the New Hampshire primary, it’s difficult to predict who the Democratic nominee will be in 2016, but Congressman (and Clinton supporter) Bill Keating says a little healthy competition never hurt anybody. “I’ve changed my thinking,” he told Jim Braude and Margery Eagan on Boston Public Radio. “I thought, from the Democratic side, it wasn’t that great to have competition, and we should all coalesce, we should all come together, it should be this kumbaya moment, and I was wrong. I think it’s good to have a campaign, it’s been good for the party, it’s been good for the party, and it’s been good for her, individually, too.”
In the beginning of the campaign, Keating says Clinton was “reserved by nature” and destined to have a tough time in both the media and connecting to voters. “I think she’s now more comfortable in her own skin, I think she’s embracing debates now,” Keating said. “I’ve seen her take the life vest off and jump in the pool and say hey, this is pretty good… that’s a big, big change from the beginning of the campaign.”
Despite conventional viewpoints on the campaign trail, Keating says voters benefit with a diverse range of issues, presented by competitive candidates. “The facts have born out that it’s good that there was competition, and is competition going forward, that’s a good thing, and it’s a good thing, actually, for the country,” Keating said. “You’re seeing two different themes in these debates so far, on both sides, and it’ll be interesting, going forward, to see if on the Republican side, they’re talking about domestic issues and on the Democratic side whether it’s going to be more into national security and those issues.”
According to Keating, the people of New Hampshire are sick of campaigns, and sick of being inundated with political messaging. “When you go to New Hampshire this time of year, and people here knock at the door on the weekend, unless you’re wearing a UPS suit or something, they know you’re out there for a candidate and frankly, most of them have had it up to their eyeballs, you know they’re there, but they won’t answer the door.”
Bernie Sanders has been called a political outsider, separated from Washington politics, but Keating says it’s too soon to say whether that image will help Sanders, or if Sanders truly captures the frustration that voters feel. “This is just the beginning,” Keating said. “A capture implies a finality, and I think we’re really at the very beginning stages. In the big picture, the capturing is going to occur with a nomination, and you’re going to see transformations during this whole election period. This is just the beginning.”
