“We brought, what, way over twice,” the typical caucus numbers, Siegel said.

“Absolutely. It was amazing,” Eggers agreed.

Eggers thinks Clinton made several mistakes in running her campaign, and also sees an Iowa genesis for her struggles. Edwards beat Clinton by a scant one point, but all most people saw was her third-place finish.

Clinton never took advantage of ways to distinguish herself from Obama, Eggers said. She worked for the Clinton campaign, and the Iowa campaign managers in Des Moines saw distinctions as going negative, something the Clinton camp tried to avoid here.

“I think [Clinton strategist] Mark Penn should have been sent on his way a lot sooner,” Eggers said.

Staying on-message was also an issue.

“She jumped all over the map as far as what her issues were,” Eggers said. “I think she just kind of didn’t have a good focus.”

Both women think Edwards’ Wednesday endorsement of Obama will help in the general election. Edwards ran strong in southeast Iowa and could help bring his former supporters into the fold. But Eggers sees red when she thinks about how Edwards phrased the endorsement.

“Every time I hear him say ‘He’s the man,’ I’d like to run him over because it’s Hillary’s turn,” she said. The semantics matter to Eggers, who said Edward’s emphasis on gender was probably inadvertent but immensely irritating. “I was just absolutely fuming.”

Siegel sees sexism in the primary contests as well.

“It was pretty obvious. When Edwards commented on her outfit, my God!” she said.

Siegel and Eggers both believe the Democrats have several major advantages in November, the biggest of whom is sitting in the White House. They see President George Bush as a weight that Republican nominee John McCain and other Republicans will have a hard time shedding.

Recent special elections seem to back that up. Republicans lost a congressional seat from Louisiana last week, and another this week in a one-time Mississippi Republican stronghold. Politico.com, a respected politics Web site, suggests the Republicans could lose 20 seats in November.

Siegel and Eggers like that prediction. But they say there’s still a very long way to go.

Matt Milner can be reached at (641) 683-5359 or via e-mail at mwmilner@mchsi.com