The Democratic five-alarm fire has begun.

Around the country on Tuesday, Democrats found themselves baffled by the circumstances engulfing their party — even one that is known for, and sometimes takes pride in, its tendency to overreact with worry.

“This is just one sad week,” said former senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

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“While I am having these very dark, sad feelings about the Senate GOP and a whitewash, here comes this mess in Iowa,” Boxer said, referring to the impeachment trial. “This is a wake-up call. We’re going to be tested.”

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Democrats, after three-plus miserable years under Trump, hoped this would be a turning point, with the president facing impeachment for allegedly abusing his power and Democrats beginning in earnest the campaign to oust him. But neither process is going as planned, reviving Democratic jitters that Trump is somehow not subject to the ordinary laws of politics.

And there is little confidence the coming weeks will provide much clarity. Arguably one of the biggest beneficiaries of the current turmoil is former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, a presidential hopeful who could see an opening in the chaos. On Tuesday he announced he was hiring more staff, spending more on television ads and scheduling more campaign events.

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For all the scandals and allegations against him, Trump’s approval rating rose Tuesday to 49 percent, his best Gallup poll performance since 2017. Approval of his handling of the economy has also been strong.

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Some Democrats say that is a far more ominous warning sign than the confusion in the Iowa caucuses.

“Far too many Democrats are wrapping themselves around an axle about the delay of results and release of data in Iowa,” said Jen Psaki, a Democratic consultant and veteran of three presidential campaigns. “The existential threat to [a Democrat] being in the White House is Donald Trump is about to be acquitted and his approval rating has gone up. We’re missing the point here.”

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Democrats were concerned that turnout for the caucuses, which party officials just weeks ago predicted would hit record levels due to voter enthusiasm to take on Trump, apparently fell short of expectations, potentially suggesting a lack of enthusiasm for the candidates.

Turnout was on course to match the numbers for 2016, but was likely to fall far short of the 2008 caucuses, when a historic number of Iowans showed up to show their enthusiasm for then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). The falloff coincided with relatively low interest in the Democratic presidential debates, which have not attracted same the level of viewership as in prior election cycles.

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“For a while I think there was this thought that you have these candidates running different kinds of grass-roots campaigns and doing this organizing, and that’s going to bring new people into the caucus,” Psaki said. “That didn’t happen. We don’t need to panic or wet our beds here, but we need to take a look at what that means.”

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Some party officials said that while the relatively low Iowa turnout may suggest an uncertainty as to who is the best choice to run against Trump, it does not reflect a lack of enthusiasm, and they predicted that many of the voters who stayed home will turn out in November.

Still, the combination of the muddled result, a botched process that forced the Iowa Democratic chairman to apologize late Tuesday, and the low participation levels was demoralizing to many in the party.

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“Iowa was a debacle,” said Joe Trippi, a longtime Democratic consultant, adding that the confusion about what actually happened was especially damaging.

“We don’t know a damn thing — that’s what’s crazy,” Trippi said. “This totally transparent thing that everyone in the room knew what happened and saw it happen — and no one outside the room knows. It’s just mind-blowing.”

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The party began releasing some of the results late Tuesday afternoon, and with 62 percent reporting, former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were vying for first place, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) trailing in third.

Biden was in fourth, a disappointing finish after he made a major push in the state in the past two months, taking a campaign bus all around Iowa, working to earn the biggest endorsements, and spending significantly on television ads.

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Instead, the leaders were two un­or­tho­dox candidates — the 38-year-old former mayor of a small-to-medium city and a 78-year-old democratic socialist who recently suffered a heart attack. The showing began to fray nerves among Democrats who have had lingering concerns about Biden’s sluggish campaign style, small crowds and rhetorical missteps.

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“This is not going particularly well so far,” James Carville, a well-known Democratic consultant who has endorsed Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.) for president, said on MSNBC.

Taking aim at the Democratic leadership, Carville added, “This party needs to wake up and make sure that we talk about things that are relevant to people. In 2018 we had good, diverse, strong candidates that had real connections and talked about real things. We don’t need to become the British Labour Party.”

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That party suffered a major defeat in the last British election under left-leaning leader Jeremy Corbyn.

“Right now, I’ve got to tell you,” Carville said, “I’m not very impressed.”

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Biden was the only one of the top four candidates who lost support from the first round of voting Monday night to the second round.

It was just a few days earlier that Biden, while stopping for ice cream on the campaign trail, mocked Buttigieg for being a small-town mayor.

“You guys have seen Pete. He’s a good guy,” Biden told a group of reporters. But he added, “You know, I’ve gotten more than 8,600 votes in my life.”

As the initial results came in on Tuesday, Buttigieg was on course to get more votes than Biden has received in his three runs for president.

Some of Biden’s campaign aides and supporters defended his showing, attributing the loss more to the demographics and dynamics of Iowa than any fundamental problem with his campaign. With upcoming primaries in Nevada, South Carolina and an array of Southern states with more diverse populations, they predicted he would rebound.

“You can’t construct a worse scenario for Joe Biden to have to run in [than Iowa] — he has to fight with both hands tied behind his back,” said Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), a former presidential candidate who endorsed Biden. “He is strongest with communities of color and older voters, and the caucus doesn’t allow for any of that.”

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Ryan said that as he called Iowans leading up to the caucuses to advocate for Biden, a number of older voters said that they were struggling to get to the polls, especially since the caucuses can take several hours.

“It was like, how do you expect this guy to win this thing, or do well, when his strength in the electorate is not coming to the polls?” Ryan said. “If it was a primary, he would have won. Those voters who can walk in and vote and walk out, working-class people. I think he would have won this thing.”

Ryan said that Biden could revive himself, especially in Nevada and South Carolina.

“People are happy to start moving onto some larger states with a little more diverse electorate,” he said. “It’s not even fair,” he added, referring to Iowa.

More broadly, some Democrats warned against reading too much into the party’s struggles over the past week, given the turbulent and fluid condition of the current political landscape. With the focus quickly moving toward next Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary and beyond, and with impeachment soon in the rear view mirror, the party’s natural strengths will reassert themselves, they said.

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“We are much better talking about health care and climate change and other issues than impeachment,” said Barney Frank, a former congressman from Massachusetts.

Many in the party remain optimistic that a surge of energy from voters frustrated and angry at the Trump presidency is likely to power them to victory in November.

“A lot of times in politics, it’s good to get the bad stuff out of the way,” Boxer said, adding that she was choosing to be philosophical about the week’s woes for her party. “Whether that’s the weaknesses of candidates or the weaknesses in voting systems — it’s best to get them out of the way.”

Still, Frank said, one thing is clear from the past few days.