Huckabee and Obama Dominate In Iowa
Sen. Barack Obama swept to victory in the Iowa caucuses Thursday night, pushing Hillary Rodham Clinton to third place. Mike Huckabee rode a wave of support from evangelical Christians to win the opening round among Republicans in the 2008 campaign for the White House.
Complete returns showed the first-term lawmaker gaining 38 percent support from Iowa Democrats. Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina appeared headed for second place, relegating Clinton, to a sort of close third.
Huckabee, a preacher turned politician, handily defeated Romney despite being outspent by millions of dollars. He stressed his religion to the extent of airing a commercial that described himself as a “Christian leader” in his race against a man seeking to become the first Mormon president.
Nearly complete returns showed Huckabee with 34 percent support, compared with 25 percent for Romney. Former Sen. Fred Thompson and Sen. John McCain battled for third place, while Texas Rep. Ron Paul wound up fifth and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani sixth.
With the New Hampshire primary only five days away, the three way battle between Clinton, Edwards, and Obama for the Democratic nomination is sure to heat up.
Senator Hillary Clinton assured her supporters in a speech after the results that she intends to see this race through to the end, and that there is still a long way to go.
“We have always planned to run a national campaign,” the former first lady told supporters at a noisy rally attended by her husband and their daughter, Chelsea. “I am so ready for the rest of this campaign, and I am so ready to lead.”
On the Republican side, Mitt Romney sought to frame his defeat by looking at the bright side, saying he had trailed Huckabee by more than 20 points a few weeks ago.
“I’ve been pleased that I’ve been able to make up ground and I intend to keep making up ground, not just here but across the country,” he said.
Turnout for this year’s Iowa caucuses was up for both parties, but the Democrats enjoyed a substantial increase compared to previous years.
Projections estimated that 220,588 Democrats showed up on a cold midwinter’s night, shattering the previous mark of 124,000.
Turnout on the Republican side projected about 114,000 people taking part. The last previous contested Republican caucuses in 2000 drew 87,666 participants.
In interviews as they entered the caucuses, more than half of all the Republicans said they were either born-again or evangelical Christians, and they liked Huckabee more than any of his rivals.
About half the Democratic caucus-goers said a candidate’s ability to bring about needed change was the most important factor as they made up their minds, according to the entrance interviews by the AP and the television networks.
Tonight was no doubt a devastating loss for Mrs. Clinton, however her opponents would be incredibly naive to underestimate her. I suspect the gloves are gonna come off the Clinton campaign from this point on. Obama can look forward to withering attack ads, whisper campaigns, and all the rest starting tomorrow morning.
It should be interesting to see how far the Huckaboom can go. While he did have a decisive victory in Iowa, he will have a tougher time in the national election. During a time of war, it’s not likely that Republicans are going to nominate a guy with virtually no foreign policy experience whatsoever.
The guy to really watch on the Republican side is John McCain who is in the midst of quite a comeback. His campaign got off to an incredibly rocky start, and most pundits left him for dead months ago.
-Chris Jones
Related Posts
Comments
Leave a Reply
Posts
