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Viewing Category: Iowa Caucus
The people (of Iowa) have spoken, the bastardsBy Peter Bakke
Electapres.com Editor
Hats off to Dick Tuck, a little known California politician, for originally speaking those Mark-Twainish words after losing a state senate campaign. The phrase has a clever ring to it and neatly wraps up the Iowa caucus results for everyone but the winners, Huckabee and Obama.
The Romney and Clinton camps must be feeling sharp pains after losing in Iowa. The forced smiles, the faux cheerfulness and bravado must be difficult to muster as they drag themselves and their Barnum and Bailey entourages to New Hampshire for the next battle.
Self-examination is not a strong suit for politicians, particularly presidential candidates in the maelstrom of a grueling political campaign. Politicians tend to take their anger and grief out on others, so don't be surprised if some staffers on several campaigns get pink slips, demerits or demotions in the interim after the New Hampshire primary and before Super Tuesday on Feb. 5th.
Remember that these early caucuses and primaries are indeed battles, not the deciding war. The long campaign is far from over.
Money is what keeps candidates in the race. Just ask Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, who dropped out gracefully within minutes of their poor showing in Iowa. Money makes the political world go 'round and they weren't getting any. Hanging on the stump until the day after the Iowa caucus seems to be the dignified thing to do for candidates itching for withdrawal due to checkbook issues.
Unless Huckabee can find some heavy rollers before the mega primary on February 5th, he might be strumming his six strings back in Arkansas on the morning of Feb. 6th.
Hillary's machine has hit a bump in the road in Iowa, but her financial and national backing will keep her rolling on for quite some time. It is not an encouraging sign, however, that 67 percent of Iowa Democratic caucus-goers decided they did not want to vote for her. Or Bill.
Obama currently has plenty of money, but he will have to do well in New Hampshire and South Carolina to continue as a viable national candidate. If he excels in New Hampshire, Hillary could find herself in trouble as moneyed Democrats will be deciding who is more electable come November.
Edwards, despite his big labor backing, could not best Obama in Iowa and barely squeaked past Clinton. His campaign may implode if he does not do well in New Hampshire and South Carolina. David Brooks of the New York Times writes today that Edwards's political career may already be over.
Romney has deep personal pockets, but his supporters (and his bankers) may decide that if he does not win big in New Hampshire, the money hemorrhaging may need to stop. No more money. No more campaign.
McCain was practically a no-show in Iowa, but he surges on like the Energizer Bunny in New Hampshire, despite his advancing age. Money and Republican base support will come his way if he can manage to do well in New Hampshire, which he won handily against G. W. Bush in 2000. Also in 2000, the following primary in South Carolina destroyed him, so he'll be looking to side-step any bombs thrown his way there - even as Arizonans wonder who is representing them in the United States Senate.
And that leaves Giuliani - the odd man out in Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Where is Rudy, by the way? Why, he is bouncing around the South, particularly Florida, making his stand in the 'later' states. He'll be around until Feb. 5th, but look out below if he does poorly on Super Tuesday.
Stay tuned, more surprises will be in store next Tuesday in New Hampshire.
Permalink [Category: -Electa-MOJO, Iowa Caucus] Does Obama's Win Show US Is Colorblind?Ray Ballentine was waiting for a sign to throw his support to Barack Obama. And when Obama coasted to victory in Iowa's caucuses, there it was -- evidence that the senator had the broad racial appeal to get to the White House.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus, Obama Archive, Race]''I did have some reservations before, but he certainly got my vote now,'' Ballentine said, eating a brisket and roast turkey salad with hush puppies at The Q Shack, a barbecue joint in Raleigh, N.C. ''I was sort of undecided, but I feel like he can win the presidency.''
Obama's convincing win in Thursday's caucuses in Iowa -- a state with just a smattering of minority voters -- demonstrated the Illinois senator's support crosses racial lines and bolstered the notion that America is receptive to electing its first black president.
Iowa Offers LessonsDES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- After all the campaigns' sophisticated media tactics and high-tech maneuvering, Iowa voters offered the presidential candidates a version of Politics 101: In this state, stick to the basics.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus]''This couldn't have happened in New York or California,'' said Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford, commenting after the caucuses in which Barack Obama defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mike Huckabee beat Mitt Romney.
As the campaign signs were being torn down and miles of TV cable packed away Friday, strategists were sorting through the debris left by a round of precinct caucuses that reshaped the race for the White House.
McCain May Benefit From Huckabee’s Jolt to G.O.P.MANCHESTER, N.H. — Mike Huckabee’s defeat of Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses jolted a Republican Party establishment already distressed about the state of its presidential field.If only by default, Mr. McCain is getting yet another look and appears to be in a strong position competing against a weakened Mr. Romney in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.
Mr. McCain is the latest beneficiary of the continuing upheaval in the Republican field that has seen nearly all of the candidates rising at various points. Among them were Mr. McCain, former Senator Fred D. Thompson of Tennessee and Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former mayor of New York.
Mr. Romney’s defeat in Iowa only underlined concerns that many Republicans had expressed about him, while the success of Mr. Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, gave rise to new worries among the Republican establishment.
Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Iowa Caucus, McCain Archive, New Hampshire Primary]
In Calling The Race, The Media Miss by a MileFor most of the past year, the news media treated Hillary Clinton as inevitable and Mike Huckabee as invisible.Permalink [Category: Hillary Clinton Archive, Huckabee, Iowa Caucus, Obama Archive]In the wake of Thursday's Iowa caucuses, those judgments are looking rather shortsighted.
Until recent weeks, Huckabee was regarded as an asterisk, a former Arkansas governor whose entry into the presidential race didn't even warrant a mention on the "CBS Evening News." He was good for comic relief -- the wisecracking, bass-playing, weight-losing preacher man -- but not portrayed as a serious threat to win in Iowa or anyplace else. The media's chief benchmark is money, and Mitt Romney had truckloads of it and Huckabee very little.
Barack Obama, who beat Clinton in the Democratic contest, was initially hailed by anchors and pundits as a "rock star," but by the summer and fall he was depicted as a dull candidate who seemed to have little hope of catching up. Commentators openly urged him to attack the former first lady. Obama's winning margin was something of a surprise, but not as big, perhaps, as the bursting of the Hillary bubble that may have been inflated by a year's worth of press.
Thank You, IowaTHE WEEKLY STANDARD is a magazine of its word. Three weeks ago, we made the case that the country deserved to be liberated from the Clintons and their brand of politics. We promised to be the first to say something we are not accustomed to saying to the Democratic party--thank you. So, to the Iowa Democrats and independents who caucused in such numbers for Obama and even--this hurts--for Edwards, we say: Thank you. You have begun the job. We are confident your brethren in other states will finish it.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus]Clinton will undoubtedly be on the attack against Obama in New Hampshire. In December, in Iowa, she forecast that the assaults would begin: "Well, now the fun part starts," she said. "We're going to start drawing a contrast, because I want every Iowan to have accurate information when they make their decisions." Well, over 200,000 Iowans made their decisions--and fewer than 3 in 10 wanted Hillary as their nominee. Now, as we prophesied in an earlier editorial, "The 'fun part' for the rest of us will be watching the bitter infighting among the Clintonistas as the wheels come off Hillary's campaign."
Meanwhile, we shouldn't leave Iowa without thanking its citizens for more than apparently sending Hillary Clinton on a path back to the U.S. Senate. We're by no means convinced we would have put Mike Huckabee ahead of his competitors in the GOP field as Iowa Republicans chose to do. But we applaud Huckabee for his industrious and savvy campaign. And we applaud the people of Iowa for stubbornly insisting on making up their own minds. Iowa's voters actively engaged in the electoral process. They turned out to prefer a Republican who was outspent 10 to 1, but who connected with them. In a democracy, that's a rather large part of politics. And, who can't like the fact that on both sides of the aisle last Thursday the "inevitable" candidates went down to defeat?
Obama's Win in Iowa Shakes Up LaborWASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite racking up almost all of the endorsements from organized labor, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards came in behind Barack Obama -- the only Democratic front-runner with no national union support -- in the Iowa caucuses. That left at least one union looking for a new candidate Friday.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus, Labor, Obama Archive]International Association of Fire Fighters President Howard Schaitberger called the support for Obama ''breathtaking,'' after seeing his union's candidate, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., falter in Iowa and drop out of the race. Despite the money and the manpower organized labor shifted to Iowa for Clinton, Edwards and Dodd -- one union ran television ads for Clinton while another shifted workers in-state to stump for Edwards -- Obama still won convincingly.
''The tsunami was far greater than we could attempt to hold off,'' Schaitberger said.
Obama Triumphs in Iowa Contest as Clinton Falters; Huckabee RollsDES MOINES — Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, a one-term Democratic senator trying to become the nation’s first African-American president, rolled to victory in the Iowa caucuses on Thursday night, lifted by what appeared to be a record turnout of voters who rejected the criticism that he did not have enough experience.Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Iowa Caucus, Obama Archive]Outside United Steelworkers Local 164 in Des Moines, where Senator John Edwards paid a visit on Thursday.
Mr. Obama’s victory amounted to a significant setback for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who just months ago appeared to be the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, but has watched her position erode over the past several months. The result also left uncertain the prospects for John Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, who had staked his second bid for the White House on winning this state....
On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas who was barely a blip on the national scene just two months ago, defeated Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, delivering a serious setback to Mr. Romney’s high-spending campaign and putting pressure on Mr. Romney to win in New Hampshire next Tuesday.
How Barack Obama swept to victory in IowaJan. 4, 2008 | DES MOINES, Iowa -- The battle for Precinct 67 was decided in the parking lot. Just the crush of cars filling every parking lot around Central Campus, a high-school academy just west of the city center, signaled that this would be a big night for Barack Obama. As Jeffrey Hunter, the owner of the Hotel Fort Des Moines (yes, he is my temporary landlord), who was caucusing for Obama, said amid the bedlam in the school cafeteria, "I've never seen turnout like this." Democratic turnout here in Iowa Gov. Chet Culver's home precinct wound up more than doubling 2004 levels.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus, Obama Archive]Like shepherds, organizers for each candidate gathered their supporters at cafeteria tables in different sections of the room -- and, even as Democrats were still signing in, the outcome seemed visually obvious. Like islands in a sea, lonely tables for the supporters of Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd (plus a small knot of Dennis Kucinich backers in the rear of the room) were a visual sign that these candidates would not make the 15 percent threshold to win one of nine delegates awarded here. (With a record 471 caucus-goers in Precinct 67, a candidate needed 71 supporters to be viable.)
Paul Pettinger, a software engineer who had still not made up his mind (he was leaning Edwards) as the initial count neared, pointed to the dozens of Democrats lined up against the side wall as the initial parliamentary maneuvers began. "Most of the people who don't know what they're doing are for Obama -- they're the new voters," he said knowingly. Of course, Pettinger himself last attended a caucus in the 1980s.
Analysis: Obama Shows Blacks Can WinWASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrat Barack Obama has put to rest the question of whether a black presidential candidate can win in white America.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus, Race]His victory in 95 percent white Iowa proved that he could appeal across racial lines and even draw women away from Hillary Rodham Clinton despite her push for them to make her the first female president. Next he'll try to build on his record in New Hampshire, which is 96 percent white.
Obama did not appeal so openly to make history as the first black to occupy the Oval Office; he rarely mentioned that he was black.
From Nowhere, Huckabee PrevailsDES MOINES — He seemed to come out of nowhere: a former Baptist preacher and ex-governor who was so little known among Republicans that many of them could not even name the state he once led (Arkansas). But Mike Huckabee turned from asterisk-status to giant-slayer in Iowa on Thursday night as he won the caucuses in spite of a paltry political organization, slim dollars and a final week marked by gaffes.As when Pat Robertson came in a surprising second in the Iowa caucuses in 1988, Mr. Huckabee enjoyed substantial political support from evangelical Christians and took advantage of a muddled Republican presidential field to drive toward an 11th-hour victory over former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, who had been considered the leader.
For Mr. Romney, who outspent Mr. Huckabee on advertising here by six to one, the loss will register as a deep blow to his candidacy — a failure bound to worry establishment Republicans and wealthy donors who have viewed him as their man. It will also energize and inspire Republicans backing Senator John McCain of Arizona in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.
Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Iowa Caucus]
Clinton Campaign Looks Toward N.H.DES MOINES -- At 9:25 p.m. Central time, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton emerged onstage to acknowledge the first electoral loss of her career. "I am so ready for the rest of this campaign, and I am so ready to lead," Clinton said. She spoke for about 10 minutes, with her husband, daughter and mother standing at her side.Permalink [Category: Hillary Clinton Archive, Iowa Caucus, New Hampshire Primary]"Thank you, thank you so much. Wow," Clinton said. "Well, we're going to take this enthusiasm and go right to New Hampshire tonight. This is a great night for Democrats. We have seen an unprecedented turnout here in Iowa, and that is good news because today we're sending a clear message that we are going to have change and that change will be a Democratic president in the White House in 2009."
Clinton repeated her central theme: That only she is ready to lead as president upon inauguration in 2009. She also suggested that many Iowans had been unable to participate in the caucuses, which require people to be physically present in the room and thus exclude active-duty members of the military and night workers. And Clinton promised, as expected, to continue running a national race.
After the public rally, the Clintons held a private pep talk with their staff members on the floor of their hotel. Former president Bill Clinton told downcast aides that there was some good news in the night's results: that the campaign had gotten far more than 70,000 voters -- far more than the campaign thought it needed, he said -- and that he is confident a post-caucus analysis will show that Clinton and Obama were tied among first-time voters. He also described second-choice votes as the meaningless result of deals made by other campaigns.
Iowans Reject Political EstablishmentABC News' Rick Klein Reports: In delivering a harsh rejection of the political establishment, Iowa caucus-goers on Thursday reshaped both the Republican and Democratic presidential fields -- and provided the starkest evidence yet that change will be the winning mantra of the 2008 campaigns.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus]Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former governor Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., share little in terms of ideology or political grooming. But they both appeal to a similar -- and increasingly potent -- vein in American politics: a desire to move beyond the hyper-partisan politics that have marked the last two decades.
More than that, Obama and Huckabee became vessels for the hopes and aspirations of Iowans. They defeated candidates who weren't supposed to lose: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., a former first lady and the beneficiary of the what was supposed to be the best Democratic machine in the country, and former governor Mitt Romney, R-Mass., a camera-friendly and wealthy candidate who has spent the past year trying to win Iowa.
Yepsen: Goodbye, and see ya real soon...So as we say farewells, we should thank people like Reva Bottles, Becca Slutzky, Danny Vega, Emily Parcell, Kassie and Kristen Dulin, and hundreds more like them for their dedication and inspiration.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus]Is this the last time Iowa hosts a caucus? Perhaps. Someday the country may figure out a better way to do this, and when that happens, Iowans shouldn’t be so parochial as to fight it. But neither should we be so stupid as to just let some other state or region grab this away. If you love money in politics, you’ll love a regional, national or big-state primary. This is still a place where up-close politics is important.
The betting here is that in 2012, the country won't agree on a better way to do this. The party out of power will have a contest for the nomination. Once again, Iowa will have a role to play at the start. If this is like other cycles, the 2012 wannabees will be showing up in less than a year, in December 2008.
Iowa leaves GOP in total disarrayDES MOINES, Iowa — Mike Huckabee’s startling, not-even-close victory over Mitt Romney and the rest of the GOP field in the Iowa caucus means the Republican Party is in for a wildly unpredictable ride in the weeks ahead.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus, Strategy]Here’s what’s certain: Romney’s dethroning has created a big opening for a John McCain revival in the New Hampshire primary next Tuesday.
The Iowa results, with a victory for a populist social conservative deeply mistrusted by many people in the Republican establishment, also virtually guarantee that the nomination contest will not simply be a battle over personalities and credentials. Instead, the race will now be a deep and probably intensely negative fight for the direction of the party in the post-Bush era.
In Iowa, it doesn't pay to spend bigDES MOINES -- Money can't buy love -- and it might not necessarily decide the Iowa caucuses.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus, Money]White House hopefuls have poured tens of millions of dollars into the contest here, setting new spending records in hopes of launching their candidacies with a breakthrough victory tonight. But history shows that the candidate who spends the most in Iowa doesn't always walk away the winner.
The exact amount that candidates have spent this year in Iowa -- and years past -- is not known. The Federal Election Commission doesn't require state breakdowns, and most campaigns treat such details as secret. Still, some conclusions can be drawn by reviewing advertising budgets and overall campaign spending leading up to the Iowa caucuses, the nation's first presidential nominating contests.
Iowa Keys to Look for Thursday NightDES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Want an early hint how the Republican caucuses are going? Check Plymouth County Thursday evening in remote northwest Iowa -- chilly home of Blue Bunny ice cream and a hotbed of evangelical activists who could sway the first voting of the 2008 presidential campaign.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus]Democrats might get an early take on their caucuses from Newton, a company town battered by the closing of Maytag Corporation's big plant.
Plymouth's county seat of Le Mars bills itself as ''the ice cream capital of the world'' because of the local dairy, but this year in politics ''that's Huckabee territory,'' says David Roederer, a veteran activist who's been advising John McCain's Iowa campaign this year. A big turnout could be a sign that evangelicals -- accounting in past cycles for up to 40 percent of the Republican caucus vote -- are delivering for the one-time Baptist minister.
Candidates Struggle to Iowa Finish LineDES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards closed out a long, grueling Iowa caucus campaign Wednesday night with statewide television appeals, each seeking an early triumph in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Leading Republicans exchanged routine unpleasantries on a final day of campaigning.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus]''You just don't know what is going to happen,'' confessed Mitt Romney, unwilling to forecast success over Republican rival Mike Huckabee in Thursday's first contest of the race for the White House.
''This country is ready for a leader who will bring us together,'' Obama said in a two-minute commercial televised at the dinner hour. A first-term Illinois senator seeking to become the nation's first black president, he added, ''That's the only way we're going to win this election. And that's how we'll actually fix health care, make college affordable, become energy independent and end this war.''
Dems Hit TV for Final Iowa PitchesMost surveys show Clinton, Obama and Edwards in a close and fluid three-way contest. Those surveys also have identified a large group of activists who have yet to settle on a candidate or who say they could still change their minds.Permalink [Category: Ads, Iowa Caucus, Television]Edwards makes his last appeal to Iowa voters, not with his own words, but those of Bishop, a working class father. By using Maytag as a foil, the ad touches an emotional nerve in Iowa. Maytag's washer and dryer factory was once the pride of Newton, Iowa, until it closed its doors in October. For Edwards, the plant represents a symbol for his populist rhetoric -- one that criticizes corporations, foreign trade deals and special interests.
''I want a guy that's going to sit down and look a 7-year-old kid in the eye and tell him, 'I'm going to fight for your dad's job,''' Bishop says, as he introduces Edwards to an Iowa crowd. ''That's what I want. I'm going to do my best to make sure that my children aren't the first generation of Americans that I can't look them in the eye and say, 'You're going to have a better life than I had.'''
Edwards supplemented his television spot with a full-page ad in the Des Moines Register that included a written message from Bishop and a lengthy essay from Edwards.
Campaigns Feeling Effects of Iowa Poll...the timing of the Kucinich announcement -- coinciding with the poll results -- suggests a possible “poll effect,” in which marginal candidates and undecided voters can start to move toward a perceived winner.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus, Polls]The results of the poll continued to reverberate across the campaign trail on Tuesday as the clock ticked toward the caucuses Thursday night.
Mr. Obama seemed to have a fresh bounce in his step as he set off on his first fly-around tour of Iowa. At the first of four events on the day, he addressed an audience of more than 1,000 people in Des Moines, saying: “I think 2008 is going to be a good year. That’s what I think. I think some big things might happen in 2008.”
Romney Says He Doesn't 'Have to Win' in Iowa...Acknowledging that he's locked in a dead heat with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Romney said he marveled at the fact that he started 2007 at 5 percent or 6 percent in the polls."To now be one of the top two contenders, with Mayor Giuliani and John McCain and Fred Thompson all the way behind me -- people who are household names -- that's really quite an accomplishment," he said.
In the past week, the rhetorical brawl between Romney and Huckabee has gotten intense and personal, seeming to climax with Monday's unusual press conference at which Huckabee convened the media to show them a negative campaign ad about Romney all set to begin airing across the state.
Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus, Romney Archive]
Low-Key Thompson Stumbles Toward Finish LineTwo days before the Iowa caucuses — day 15 of his 17-day "hands down" bus tour — former senator Fred Thompson's campaign bus stood motionless in the snowy parking lot of a West Des Moines motel, across from a movie theater and a suburban strip mall.Thompson's campaign scheduled only one event for New Year's Day, a meet-and-greet at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown, about an hour outside Des Moines. Thompson, R-Tenn., shunned the bus, emblazoned with his picture, for the relative comfort of a black Chevrolet Suburban.
"We decided that we would give the people a break," Thompson told reporters after a casual 34 minutes spent meeting veterans. "We could either — it was a close call, to go jogging in almost zero-degree weather, or stay in and take a nap. After considerable consideration, I decided to take a nap."
Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus, Thompson Fred]
Analysis: Huckabee May Have Gone Too FarAfter running an unconventional, surprisingly strong and sometimes strange race to the top tier of the Republican presidential campaign, the former Arkansas governor topped himself Monday with an eyebrow-raising campaign stunt.Permalink [Category: Ads, Huckabee, Iowa Caucus, Romney Archive]He called a news conference to unveil a negative ad that he had just withdrawn from Iowa television stations because, he told a room full of journalists recording the ad, he had a sudden aversion to negative politics. Quite a convenient epiphany.
''If people want to be cynical about it,'' Huckabee said, ''they can be cynical about it.''
If he loses Iowa's caucuses on Thursday, New Year's Eve will forever mark the day Huckabee blew it -- the day a group of reporters stopped laughing with the witty Republican and laughed at him.
More Than Geography Separates Iowa, NH''The people of New Hampshire pay attention to Iowa, but it's not the determining factor,'' Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona observed recently.That's a diplomatic way of saying New Hampshire primary voters see little merit in rubber-stamping decisions made in Iowa.Truth be told, they specialize in humbling the mighty.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus, New Hampshire Primary]Think 2000, when George W. Bush roared out of Iowa, only to lose New Hampshire by a whopping 19 percentage points to McCain.
Only twice since 1976 has the same Democrat won both Iowa and New Hampshire in a contested nominating campaign. And for all the boasting that Granite-Staters do about picking presidents, both Al Gore and John Kerry went on to lose the general election.
Huckabee Opts for Leno on Caucus EveSERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa (AP) -- On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee will trade jokes with Jay Leno on NBC's ''Tonight Show.'' While his rivals will be making a final appeal to the state's voters, Huckabee will be flying to Los Angeles to tape the show with Leno, who returns to the air Wednesday without striking writers.Permalink [Category: Hollywood, Huckabee, Iowa Caucus, Television]''It's just an incredible opportunity to be there, particularly the very first night he's back from the writer's strike,'' Huckabee said. ''Besides, if all else fails and this whole process doesn't work out, maybe he needs a sidekick and I'll be auditioning tomorrow.''
A similar late-night appearance backfired on rival Fred Thompson, the actor-politician who irked voters in New Hampshire by skipping a Republican debate last fall at the University of New Hampshire to announce his candidacy on Leno's show.
Candidates Urge Voter Turnout in IowaDES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Uplifting appeals largely replaced stinging insults Tuesday as Democratic and Republican candidates did the only thing left to do in Iowa races that are too close to call -- encourage supporters to vote for them.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus]''The polls look good, but understand this -- the polls are not enough. The only thing that counts is whether or not you show up to caucus,'' Democrat Barack Obama told a fired-up crowd of young and old packed into a high school gymnasium.
Amid murmurs of ''Amen!'' at a pizza parlor in Sergeant Bluff, Republican Mike Huckabee urged hundreds: ''Don't go alone. Take people with you. Fill up your car. Rent a van. Hijack your church's bus, whatever you've got to do to get people to the caucus who are going to vote for me.''
Candidates made the pitch repeatedly as they canvassed the state for Thursday's caucuses, the first votes of the presidential nominating process. At least 130,000 Democrats and 80,000 Republicans are expected to participate in 1,781 neighborhood meetings at schools, fire stations and community centers across Iowa on what is forecast to be a clear but cold night.
Can Huck hang on?DES MOINES — Since becoming the Iowa front-runner, Mike Huckabee has been subjected to a month-long siege of media scrutiny and mostly unanswered attacks from his top rival — an onslaught that any presidential hopeful would be hard-pressed to survive.Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Iowa Caucus]Huckabee has found himself under the unforgiving glare of the front-runner’s spotlight, and his hopes to win here have now become severely threatened by it.
Although Huckabee remains in the lead in most public polling — and the GOP race is so fluid as to make predictions suicidal — Politico has learned that Mitt Romney’s latest internal polling shows the former Massachusetts governor has narrowed the gap significantly and is now in a virtual tie with Huckabee.
What if Iowa Settles Nothing for Democrats?DES MOINES — Iowa is packed with presidential candidates and hundreds of campaign aides, advisers and contributors. Twenty-five hundred representatives of news organizations have been granted credentials to cover the caucuses Thursday night, twice as many as in 2004. Rarely has a political event been so intensely anticipated as a decisive moment, at least on the Democratic side.What if at the end of Thursday, the three leading Democrats — former Senator John Edwards and Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama — are separated by a percentage point or two, leaving no one with the clear right of delivering a victory speech (or the burden of conceding)? A number of polls going into the final days have suggested that after all of this, the Democratic caucus on Thursday night could end up more or less a tie.
Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus, Strategy]
An Odd Couple With Big InfluenceGRUNDY CENTER, Iowa -- Two states guard the campaign trail as though they own it. Their influence on national politics is wildly disproportionate to their modest populations. Neither has anything that could be called a large city, or a slum, or a sprawling suburb. Both are dotted with small towns where everyone knows everyone else. One is very white, the other whiter still.Iowa and New Hampshire have defied all predictions of their impending obsolescence. By the time Iowans finish caucusing Thursday and New Hampshirites vote in their primary five days later, the course of the 2008 presidential race may have been shaped, before many people in 48 other states have even paid much attention.
Sen. Carl M. Levin (D), whose own state of Michigan tried unsuccessfully to edge its way into the early primary picture this year, has dismissed one of those states' outsize roles in the primary process -- New Hampshire's -- as "cockamamie." And it's easy to understand the jealousy the rest of the country feels over the attention lavished on voters there and in Iowa.
Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus, New Hampshire Primary]
Iowa Final Sprint Is All About TurnoutDES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- It's all about turning out voters now. After a year of stump speeches, TV ads and face-to-face politicking, presidential get-out-the-vote operations are in overdrive in the final hours before Iowa's caucuses. Campaigns largely are relying on traditional methods, what one operative terms the ''knock-and-drag'' approach -- knock on doors and drag voters to the caucuses.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus]''Whenever it's a close race, a strong organization matters. It can make a difference,'' said Terry Nelson, a veteran strategist from President Bush's 2004 re-election race who has deep roots in Iowa politics.
Close races indeed.
Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are locked in a three-way fight. Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney are battling on the Republican side.
Huckabee Won't Air Anti - Romney AdDES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Mike Huckabee said Monday he wouldn't run a TV ad he'd prepared blistering Republican rival Mitt Romney as dishonest. Then he showed it to a room packed with reporters and cameramen.Permalink [Category: Ads, Huckabee, Iowa Caucus]Huckabee, who has sharply intensified his criticism of the former Massachusetts governor in recent days, tried to reclaim the high road in the midst of a news conference three days before Iowa's presidential caucuses. He told reporters the event had been called to announce the hard-hitting new ad but he had changed his mind about running it on TV.
''We are now committed from now through the rest of the caucuses, that we will run only ads that talk about why I should be president, and not why Mitt Romney should not,'' he said. ''The tipping point was this morning. I just realized that this is not how we run our campaign in this state. We have run it positive. We have gotten here by being positive.''
Poll: Obama, Huckabee Leading RivalsDES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Presidential contenders rang in the 2008 election year with near-constant campaigning on Monday as a poll showed Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee leading their rivals with three days remaining before the Iowa caucuses.Permalink [Category: Huckabee, Iowa Caucus, Obama Archive, Polls]Anonymous phone calls and a negative campaign commercial that vanished into thin air also spiced the race, and not even New Year's Eve was off-limits to campaign oratory.
The poll by the Des Moines Register showed Obama, an Illinois senator, with the support of 32 percent of those surveyed, compared to 25 percent for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and 24 percent for former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
No Time to Linger in IowaMany candidates in the crowded race for president are looking beyond the caucuses on Thursday in Iowa to the New Hampshire primary just five days later. That could produce a logistical nightmare, with a cast of thousands moving all at once from Des Moines to Manchester, N.H.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus]Stuart GoldenbergThe possibility that no candidate will emerge with a decisive victory on either the Democratic or Republican side, combined with the unusually tight turnaround time, means that some campaigns will pull up stakes Thursday night before the caucus results are even announced.
Most campaigns will leave surrogates in Iowa to spin the news media while they prepare to rush on to New Hampshire. The campaigns of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts have already scheduled charter planes for Thursday night for the press corps traveling with them.
New Year's Resolutions: Win Iowa, NHDES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- A bit of bubbly, a few verses of Auld Lang Syne and candidates, candidates and more candidates. It's New Year's Eve in Iowa and New Hampshire.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus, New Hampshire Primary]With the caucuses and primary just days away, many presidential hopefuls are spending every precious minute campaigning -- even if it's while voters and the rest of the world ring in the New Year with celebrations, not politics, on their mind. The Democratic and Republican contests in Iowa, on Thursday, and New Hampshire, on Jan. 8, are essentially dead heats.
No candidate can afford to take time off, except perhaps for a sip of champagne.
The Clintons -- Hillary and Bill -- each will attend two events in Iowa then meet for a ''New Year, New Beginnings Celebration'' in Des Moines.
Candidates Digging for a Deeper Pool of Iowa VotersDES MOINES — Senator Barack Obama is on the hunt for Iowans who have never participated in the state’s presidential caucuses, including independent voters under 50 and students who will be 18 by the general election.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus]Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is searching for Iowans who have skipped the caucuses in the past and who, because of age, sex or other characteristics, seem likely to support her, starting with independent women over 65 and under 30.
John Edwards is taking a more traditional approach, working through the official list of Democrats who showed up to choose a candidate in 2004, as his campaign tries to ensure that it has the name of every likely voter who might be on his side when Iowans gather in 1,781 precinct caucuses across the state on Thursday night.
Will Iowa Caucuses Shake Up Republicans?Mike Huckabee recently emerged as a serious contender after rallying restive conservatives in must-win Iowa and elsewhere. The ex-governor of Arkansas, however, lacks the money and manpower of his better-known opponents.Mitt Romney's wealth bought him enough visibility to maintain comfortable leads in Iowa and New Hampshire for months. But the former Massachusetts governor's early-state strategy now is threatened; he is fighting battles in both states.
Rudy Giuliani long dominated national polls only to watch his standing suddenly drop. The former New York mayor faces several likely early defeats and can only hope his unorthodox approach works -- winning delegate-rich states that vote later.
John McCain, the Arizona senator whose campaign all but imploded over the summer, is looking for a New Hampshire win to propel him in states beyond. Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator and TV actor whose campaign performance didn't live up to months of hype, wants to place in the top three in Iowa to prove he is credible.
Candidates Tread Warily in IowaDES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Heated? For sure. Intense? Of course.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus]Yet the Iowa caucus campaign nearly now coming to a close has been a surprisingly civilized affair, four years after caucus-goers appeared to punish two presidential hopefuls for playing too rough.
This time, the exception illustrates the rule.
''If I believed half of that stuff, I wouldn't vote for myself,'' Republican Mike Huckabee told reporters on Saturday.
Iowa Could Make or Break DemocratsDES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Iowa could make or break a Democratic candidate on Thursday. The question is, who?Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus]While the state has long played a key role in choosing the Democratic presidential nominee, it has unparalleled influence this year, even after several larger states moved up their contests to try and muscle in. Those efforts have done little more than compress the calendar into a five-week sprint that ends with the multistate primary Feb. 5 -- strengthening Iowa's position as the leadoff caucus state rather than diminishing it.
Even New Hampshire, which holds the first primary of the season, has seen its once-mighty position diminished somewhat by Iowa's outsized role this time.
As Iowa goes, so goes the nomination?How likely are the Democratic and Republican winners in Iowa's caucuses Thursday to snare their party's presidential nominations?Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus]The record is mixed. In 1980, George H.W. Bush beat Ronald Reagan in the GOP caucuses and claimed he had "big mo" -- momentum. Reagan quickly crushed him. In 1988, Richard A. Gephardt won the Democratic caucuses and then went nowhere; the third-place finisher, Michael S. Dukakis, stormed to the nomination.
More recently, however, success has greeted those who win in Iowa. That's a key reason why all the major Democratic contenders are traipsing through the state and honing "final" messages (some of which have probably been recalibrated after the assassination of Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto).
The attitude in the Democratic race is influenced by what happened four years ago, when John F. Kerry's caucus victory set a political course that never wavered. On the other hand, no Democrat endorsed by the Des Moines Register has gone on to win the nomination in 20 years. Hillary Clinton got the endorsement this month.
Presidential Hopefuls Boil Down PitchesDE
NISON, Iowa (AP) -- After a year of position papers and policy speeches, handshakes in the summer heat and winter snow, advertising that floods mailboxes and TV screens, and too many bites of pork on a stick at too many county fairs, it's time. For the final arguments.Permalink [Category: Iowa Caucus]Heading into the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, the presidential candidates are boiling down their messages.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards are in a three-way tie in the polls. Among Republicans, it is a close race for first between two former governors -- Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.
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