It turns out that reports of the political deaths of Sens. Hillary Clinton and John McCain were greatly exaggerated. Political pundits–myself included–were tempted to write off at least one of the candidates (Hillary) after her shockingly decisive defeat in Iowa, and of course McCain was labeled a has-been long before that. Now, it appears that the Iowa debacle might have been the best thing that could have happened for last night's comeback kids.

As far as Hillary goes, up until Iowa's reality check, she had been perceived as the clear favorite to win the Democratic nomination. However, Sen. Barack Obama might have done her a huge favor with his surprise victory by recasting her as the underdog. It certainly shook up her staff and reenergized her supporters by destroying any assumptions that she could just show up and claim her rightful prize.

This is shaping up to be quite a battle in both parties. Craig Gordon of “Newsday”–with his fatigue perhaps betrayed by his hyperbolic prose this morning–did capture the renewed excitement surrounding Hillary's supposedly moribund candidacy: “Clinton survived a near-death experience–and much like the idea that what doesn't kill a politician only makes him or her stronger, she is likely to come out of last night with a Lazarus-like glow, a candidate who has stared defeat in the face and can roar back to the trail renewed.”