Analysis of the Iowa Caucus

Columnist Edward Luce argued Monday in the Financial Times that Donald Trump has created a new brand in politics: an upraised middle finger. Later that day in Iowa, voters rejected Trump the candidate but stole his brand: They flipped a bird at the American political elite.

By the numbers, Ted Cruz won the Iowa caucuses. The technical winner among the Democrats is unclear but immaterial. Judging the victor by differences of tenths of a percentage point is a ridiculous enterprise when what’s being measured are delegate numbers, not tens of thousands of individual votes.