Boredom Is Winning

Late on Monday, following the chaos of the Iowa caucus, Pete Buttigieg did the same thing several of his fellow Democratic-primary candidates did that evening: He gave a rousing speech to his supporters. The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor talked about optimism, and about change. But he talked about something else as well—something his fellow candidates, acknowledging the night’s lack of an official electoral outcome, had not: He talked about victory. “Iowa, you have shocked the nation,” the candidate said, “because by all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious.”

The declaration was a curious one, given that the Iowa caucus had been defined precisely by the absence of “all indications,” and given, too, that the confusion had robbed the campaigns of any capacity they might have had to deliver a shock. But the speech was revealing in the speed of its spin: “You have shocked the nation is the language of electric injury, and of , and of , and of Donald Trump. It is a term of extremity. Here it was, though, being casually applied to an electoral outcome that, strictly speaking, did not exist. The results of the Iowa caucus are still being tabulated; Buttigieg might