Sen. Barack Obama is projected to claim victory in Iowa, and Sen. John McCain will win Utah and West Virginia according to the Associated Press. The wins were not unexpected.

“Iowa — that was Obama’s crystallizing moment. When he won Iowa [in the primary] in a turnout that was unprecedented by Iowa standards…it proved that an African American candidate could win in an overwhelmingly white state. They realized, ‘This guy really has a chance.’ Iowa became really the litmus test…for the campaign,” said NewsHour analyst Mark Shields on Tuesday night.
“I think it was in Iowa that you first began to see that [Obama] had the potential to win this,” added NewsHour analyst David Brooks.
Sen. Obama made his final Iowa appearance at a rally in Des Moines on Friday in front of an estimated 25,000 people. Sen. McCain made four appearances in Iowa in the past month and a half.