Thread: Campaign at fever pitch in Iowa

Back to web version Thursday, Jan 3, 2008
Posted on Thu, Jan. 03, 2008
Campaign at fever pitch in Iowa
BY STEVEN THOMMA AND MARGARET TALEV
McClatchy Newspapers
Now, at last, it's the voters turn.

Starting tonight in Iowa, followed by a blur of state-by-state voting over the next month and culminating in a 22-state "Tsunami Tuesday" on Feb. 5, the American people begin picking presidential candidates for the two major political parties and charting a new course for the country.

They do so after the longest, costliest election run-up in American history, the first since 1920 with no heir apparent in either party. Both parties are eager to turn the page on the George W. Bush era, particularly Democrats angry about the Iraq war, but also Republicans unhappy about such issues as illegal immigration.

On Wednesday, as the voting neared, candidates made their final pitches to Iowans in ubiquitous television ads and dashed around the snow-covered state by bus and plane, trying to inspire their supporters to turn out tonight.

By Wednesday, the campaign story line was very familiar to Iowans, who've been inundated since the first salvos last January. Campaigns and interest groups spent more than $20 million on TV ads that appeared more than 10,000 times. Candidates visited Iowa towns more than 2,000 times.

On the Democratic side, the candidates have offered similar views on expanding health care and ending the Iraq war, and based their final pitches on their political styles, experience and ability to win in November.

Democratic campaigns

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois raced to five rallies across eastern and central Iowa before closing the day before midnight at a Des Moines high school where a group of students support him.

He appealed to newcomers to the political process -- young people, independents, people who've never gone to a precinct caucus -- to propel him to victory. And he dared them to prove the pundits wrong.

"They don't think you're going to show up!" he told a rally near the University of Iowa. "Are you going to prove them wrong?" he asked to cheers.

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina finished his long courtship of Iowa Democrats with a marathon, 36-hour bus trip and a caucus-eve concert with singer John Mellencamp.

"We are excited by your energy and enthusiasm," Edwards told several dozen supporters in tiny Centerville before dawn Wednesday. "We are sort of running on adrenaline right now."

Edwards hoped for a small turnout tonight, knowing his support comes from small-town and rural Iowans who've been through caucuses before, and that a big turnout would signal a surge of newcomers for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton or Obama.

Clinton barnstormed the state by jet Wednesday, pitching her experience at stop after stop and on TV.

"After all the town meetings, the pie and coffee, it comes down to this: Who is ready to be president and ready to start solving the big challenges we face on day one?" Clinton said in a two-minute ad that aired Wednesday evening.

After touring the state, she joined her husband, Bill, for an evening rally in Des Moines.

Republican campaigns

The Republican candidates vowed to keep taxes low, combat illegal immigration, oppose abortion and, with one exception, win the war in Iraq.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee urged followers to shake up the party by propelling him to victory in a contest where he's been outspent 20-to-1 and harshly criticized by party icons such as Rush Limbaugh.

"You can tell your grandchildren the caucus turned America on its ear. We decided to stand on issues that mattered to us," he said in Mason City.

A Baptist preacher, he appealed anew to cultural conservatives who have fueled his rise in the polls, making references to his faith, vowing to oppose abortion and same-sex marriage while strengthening the military.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts ended on an upbeat, smiling note after weeks of attacking Huckabee as tax-raising, illegal immigrant-loving liberal in conservative clothing.

"You get to meet so many nice people," Romney said in an airplane hangar in Cedar Rapids. "Right here in Iowa, we've made so many friends. So true, so lasting."

Romney hoped to appeal to all wings of the party while setting aside any reservations about his Mormon faith among the Christian conservatives who make up 40 percent of the Republican vote in the state.

A possible wild card, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, rushed back to Iowa on Wednesday in hopes of pulling off a surprise third-place finish.

McCain had largely shunned the state all year, declining to compete in a straw poll last August, refusing to spend much time campaigning there or any money advertising.

Yet polls showed Iowa Republicans warming to the maverick anyway, and he swept in looking to sneak past second-tier rivals such as former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson.

© 2007 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansas.com
http://www.kansas.com/news/story/270367.html

The MSM is predictably pushing McCain now, but hopefully voters will learn about his forceful pro-illegal alien stance, his opposition to tax cuts, and his Washington insider status where he has been cozying up to lobbyists and special interests for decades.