We are going to learn a lot of lessons from this election season. We've learned a few already:
1. An African American man can win in a white state and have a very strong showing in another white state (if he runs as a Democrat).
2. The polls can be wrong.
3. Women can be a formidable and unpredictable force in an election.
4. People make up their minds at the last minute. (And it's still "a woman's privilege" to change hers.)
5. Evangelicals don't yet rule the country.
6. Individual voters count.
All of these lessons are good news for democracy. All of them remind us what this is all about: the people - not the polls, not the media, not the pundits, not the preachers - choosing a president.
The split vote between Iowa and New Hampshire assures us now that there will not be a media coronation but a real tough primary fight, in which the candidates have to prove their endurance and their ability to the voters. The biggest winners in such an election season are the citizens, who have decided to make up their own minds, unswayed by polls and blowhards like Chris Matthews.
Biggest lesson of all: It ain't over till it's over.
