Candidates Fighting To The Finish In Iowa

Hopefuls Descend To Win Over Undecided Voters And Gain Momentum As Voting Season Begins

(CBS)  This story was written by CBSNews.com political reporter Brian Montopoli.

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As a light snow fell outside, Hillary Clinton stood in an overflowing Iowa elementary school gymnasium on Friday and made a case for why she should be the Democratic nominee for president.

“Some people think you get change by demanding it, some people think you get change by hoping for it,” she said, in a shot at her two main rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards. “I think you get change by working really, really hard for it every single day.”

With the January 3rd caucuses less than a week away and no clear frontrunner having emerged in either party, virtually all of the major candidates - along with a fair share of campaign workers and media - will be working really, really hard every single day between now and Thursday. Among the presidential hopefuls campaigning in Iowa are Clinton, Edwards, Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and Fred Thompson. Some are cramming up to five events per day into their schedules in an effort to woo undecided voters.

And a win isn’t necessarily what they’re looking for. The real goal in the state, according to Huckabee’s Iowa campaign manager Eric Woolson, is to exceed expectations.

“It’s not winning, it’s having the media decide you’re the winner, you’re the surprise,” says Woolson. “In March, when [Huckabee] was at less than 1 percent, I was saying to people we need to finish in the top three, and everyone laughed because we were in 9th place. Now when I say the same thing everybody laughs at me because we’re expected to win.”

Huckabee sits atop polls of likely GOP caucus-goers in the state, followed closely by Romney, who has been running ads critical of the former Arkansas governor’s positions in an effort to close the gap. The former Massachusetts governor has held more than 200 events with voters in Iowa, according to Romney regional spokesperson Sarah Pompei.

“We’ve made no secret of our strategy to do well in the early states,” she says.

Huckabee has moved much of his staff to Iowa, and he has benefited from the backing of home-schooling and pastors organizations in a state where 40 percent of likely GOP caucus-goers are evangelicals. Romney has stressed his position on illegal immigration in his Iowa advertisements and appearances, an issue that tops the list of concerns of the state’s likely GOP caucus-goers.

Ron Paul, Giuliani, Thompson and McCain are all hoping for a finish in third place or better in the state, which would give them momentum heading into the New Hampshire primary on January 8th.

“Third or better would catapult us - it would start the revolution, as we say,” says Jeff Jared, Paul’s special projects coordinator in Iowa.

Clinton’s campaign, meanwhile, is downplaying its candidate’s chances in the state, where polls show the former first lady in a virtual tie with Edwards and Obama.

“Senator Clinton has said that Iowa is going to be her toughest state,” says Mark Daley, Clinton’s Iowa communications director. “She has never participated or campaigned here before and she isn’t from a neighboring state.”

Edwards’ Iowa spokesman, Dan Leistikow, says the campaign is satisfied with where the Iowa race stands now. Some commentators have suggested that Edwards has focused on disproportionately on Iowa, but Leistikow argues otherwise.

“We’ve spent the exact same number of days here as Obama and just a few more than Clinton,” he says. “And they have put three times as much into television ads.”

Obama’s Iowa communications director, Josh Earnest, also sought to counter what he says is a misconception - that his candidate is dependent on college students returning from their winter breaks to help him to victory.

“The polls are not polling college students,” says Earnest, who argues that any boost the Obama campaign gets from college students will simply be a bonus. “There’s no secret. This is about fundamentals. If you have the organization, and the volunteers, and the message, you’re going to have a robust turnout operation.”

At the Clinton event in Story City, Iowan Mary Harris said she had come to see whom she might support if her favored candidate, Joe Biden, is not viable at her caucus. At a Democratic caucus, a candidate needs to earn 15 percent support; if he does not, his supporters must choose another candidate. Second-choice preferences can be crucial in Iowa, a state with less than 3 million people and a 2004 caucus turnout of less than 6 percent of eligible voters.

“If I have to have a second choice on caucus night, I’m still undecided,” says Harris. 40 percent of likely caucus-goers say they have yet to even settle on a first choice.

“It’s close on both sides,” says Arthur Sanders, the chair of the department of politics at Drake University in Des Moines. “There isn’t any real way of knowing whose organizations are going to be most effective, and the January 3rd date presents problems that nobody has had to deal with before.”

Among those problems are a nationally televised college football game, college students in the middle of their vacations, and the proximity to the New Year’s holiday.

“You want about 48 hours where you can mobilize your people, but that’s New Year’s Day,” says Sanders. “Everything’s compressed. At the time you should be beginning your really hard push, you’ve got to delay things. Nobody knows what kind of impact that will have.”

[forthepeopl1]

this is what you will get with missery hillary as PRESIDENT. she were the same traiter coat as bush/cheney

at all has to do with saudi''''s and the king with the help of bush/cheneny.9-11 was all bush/cheney/and the oil countrys


The U.S. military has returned 10 Saudi detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison to their home country, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday.

The transfer cuts the number of men now held at the isolated U.S. Naval station in southeast Cuba to about 275, a decline of nearly a third in the last year.

About 136 of the 759 people detained at Guantanamo since 2002 have been Saudi, the second-largest group after Afghans. The vast majority have been repatriated - despite the fact that more than 90 percent are still considered a terrorist threat.

The U.S. agreed to return the men with the understanding that Saudi Arabia will mitigate that risk, partly through a state program to reintegrate former detainees into civilian life, said Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Defense Department spokesman.

Their detention has been a source of strain with Riyadh, a close U.S. ally.

[PulSamsara]

Voting for the worst policy decision in our life times does not make one ''experienced''. It -IS- high time America elected a woman as commander-in-chief. When a self made woman of conviction and talent stands up and demonstrates the character that can stand as an example for us all - we should stand behind her - with conviction and fortitude. Hillary Clinton is not that woman. She is the spouse of a former and popular President. In a nation, 300 million strong, are we to believe that the person most suited to be the President just happens to be related to the last President ?!
Are we really to believe this is the case ?
Will we make this mistake, again ?

Barack Obama has the strength and certitude to take America in a new and positive direction - a direction that our evolving nation - being formed all around us all as we pass through our daily lives - very much is in need of. There really is an immediacy of the ''now'' that we all share. We truly must begin to think big again and to face the immense challenges before us in brave and selfless ways again - like those people in the old faded photographs on our walls did - for us. It really is time to wake up again America. The time is, most certainly, now.

Barack Obama for President of the United States of America.

It''s time for America to Rise and Shine again.

[edw987]

Pastor Huckabee has the foreign policy experience to clean up the mess in Pakistan with one swipe of his arm. For example, Pastor Huckabee punctuated a point about hiring John Bolton as his foreign policy advisor yesterday by discharging his shotgun over the reporters'' heads. In the ensuing ruckus, he didn''t have time to mention that he is also advised by Kofi Annan, Henry Kissinger, and Mikhail Gorbachev. The other thing that has not been mentioned is an explanation of Pastor Huckabee''s comment about Pakistanis entering the US illegally. What Pastor Huckabee probably meant was that rather than coming in from Mexico, the Pakistanis could be smuggled in by cargo containers originating from the so-called geographically shared eastern border with Afghanistan. This would make sense because, as Pastor Huckabee mentioned, martial law is being enforced in Pakistan, so that everyone else must remain inside their homes which would allow terrorism suspects to slip into the containers unnoticed for journey to the US. Pastor Huckabee apologized for the Pakistani affair because he is a true Christian and that is what Christians do. And because he has a theology degree and he mentioned that most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were clergymen, it carries extra weight with Christians, so he was able to raise $89,000 in the one day ''money bomb'' on December 27.

[jack3213]

BLAH.. BLAH..BLAH Such a waste of time for some of these candidates, as we all know they don''t have a shot in hell.( eg, what ever happend to Ron Paul?) Anyway, the blaming and the non support of the current President, for right or wrong, by any candidtae is a cheap shot at their own inability to express or be able to achieve success in this country. To slam another candidate is a sign of weakness and lack of intelligance. To complain, bolster, or degrade shows they are unable to lead simply because they cannot tell us what they will do instead, only to make promises of a grand nature that will not ever surface. Time to wake up the fact that just because they are warm and fuzzy and look into your eyes and sympathize with you does not make them qualified to lead a country of 300 million. Goodness gracious, sometimes the right candidate has to be a hard nose simply to get the job done right. GUILIANI is the right man. Clinton should go home to Ark.

[Ruidu]

Concerning Mitt Romney''s lies against Mike Huckabee, Arkansas has an old saying. %u201CIts your lie so you can tell it any way you need too!%u201D

[perception5]

Voters are saying that the economy and immigration are the top issues in 2008.

That''s why I''m voting for Mitt Romney. Who else is qualified to run the largest enterprise in the world, the US economy but Mitt.

Mitt has heard the American people which is why most folks when polled support Mitt''s position.

For me it is about the "future" not the past.

And I wouldn''t dare vote for someone from Hope, Arkansas.....every again (Slick Huck and Slick Willie''s hometown).............Got me once not again.

[samthetvcat]

%u201CSome people think you get change by demanding it, some people think you get change by hoping for it,%u201D she said, in a shot at her two main rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards. %u201CI think you get change by working really, really hard for it every single day.%u201D


This is Hillary''s idea of change:

"I%u2019d like to see more of our aid shifted toward building civil society. I%u2019ve been calling for this. I have legislation that is bi-partisan, Education for All that is particularly aimed -- I%u2019ve talked to President Musharraf about the necessity for us to raise the literacy rate, to reach out with health care and education that would help the Pakistani people to really concentrate on civil society.

We should be working with these rather heroic lawyers and others who are in the streets demanding democracy instead of giving the Bush blank check to President Musharraf and the military.

* * * * *

By ''change'' I think Barack means he''s going to only spend money to improve healthcare and eduation for us. I think Hillary''s work/home dichotomy is misleading . . .

[samthetvcat]

oops that should read ''work/hope'' dichotomy . . .

[perception5]

......in other news Mitt Romney has re-taken the lead in Iowa.

A brand new ARG poll released this afternoon has Mitt Romney at 32%; Slick Huck at 23%, and McCain at 11%.

Apparently the Ameican people are starting to hear the truth about Slick Huck''s "real" record down there in Arkansas where the folks used to call him ........"tax hike mike".

[denn034]

Romney wins against the Democrats in national polls. That should be the only fact that matters.

[jkojs]

NO more Clinton dynasty and corrupted Health Industry.
Its time to end 20 years of Clinton/Bush political
dynasty.

!!! ITS TIME FOR CHANGE !!!

Barack Obama once quoted " if the United States had not gone to war in Iraq, the US Army would have had more resources to deal with the greater threat in Afghanistan and Pakistan"

BARACK OBAMA WAS RIGHT ON IRAQ.

BARACK OBAMA WAS RIGHT ON IRAN.

BARACK OBAMA WAS RIGHT ON PAKISTAN.

BARACK OBAMA HAS RIGHT JUDGEMENT FROM THE BEGINNING.

BARACK OBAMA''s JUDGEMENT TRIUMPHS OVER HILLARY''S WRONG
EXPERIENCE.


!!! VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA !!!

[cfin5]

The political bill for "Tax''a''me Huckabee and The Legend of McCains triumph over the 1st. Amendment are just about due........

[billy2227]

dshoup3, you speak of Romney''s lies. If your speaking of his commercials on Huckabee, then maybe you should state one lie that he mentioned. These are contrast ads, not personal attack ads such as Huckabees and Mccains.

[fairandbal]

Ron Paul has been banned from Fox News Republican debates!!! Why Fox? are you afraid of him and his true conservative message??!!!

Ron needs to run as a third party candidate, the GOP and it''s news media outlets like Fox News will not let him in and get his message out.

Ron, run a third party!!! America needs you to be heard!!!!

[sgtrds]

The republicans are fighting for the honor to come in 2nd place in November and the Democrats are fighting to see who will be the next president. There''s not a single Democrat running who won''t kick the living cr*ap out of any of the republicans. The Democratic nominee will be the next president (and the first REAL president we''ve had in 8 years) unless the Cheney people have him or her killed and make no mistake they will try.

[sgtrds]

Edwards/Clark ''08.

[homespunlady]

Is it just me or does anybody else feel like this early continuously vapid campaign coverage is all FLUFF.

As an old commercial once had an elderly lady state:

"WHERE''S THE BEEF" because all I''m seeing is an air-puffed bunch of nutrition-less hamburger buns being advertised.

Leadership or "playing to the crowd" I know what I''d prefer and it''s NOT someone that promises to kiss backsides to get the job.

[jamurphy4]

There is ONLY one Democratic Candidate that can win the White House, and that is Hillary Clinton.. She is the only one that the Republicans fear, and they keep pushing for Edwards, or Obama.. It''s a smoke screen, don''t believe the nay sayers.. The true Democrats will vote for Hillary because she has the most experience, and the best chance of winning.. Stick together this time. and don''t be fooled by the Republican Dirty Tricks Committee, as they are the American Taliban.. They want to put the women back in the kitchen, barefoot & pregnant

[iceman_1960]

"Candidates Fighting To The Finish..."

...because they eat their spinach...

[iceman_1960]

"BARACK OBAMA WAS RIGHT ON IRAQ."
- Posted by jkojs at 06:20 PM : Dec 29, 2007

Was he ever!

Not just right, but speaking in words whose eloquence rivals those of Lincoln and Churchill.

There is no doubt that Barack Obama, an honors graduate of Harvard Law School, is the most intellectually gifted candidate in the presidential field.

Here is his Iraq speech, given on October 2, 2002:

http://www.barackobama.com/2002/10/02/remarks_of_illinois_state_sen.php

[iceman_1960]

"The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not -- we will not -- travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain."

- Barack Obama, October 2, 2002

Barack is the man.

[cfin5]

"Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide." - Dr. Jerry Pournelle

[mcv57]

I sure wish they put Bozo the Clown on the U.S. Presidential ballot. At least he would give the American Citizens a laugh in attending to get this country out of the deaster that awaits. I would love to die laughing.

I am so sick and disgusted of the greedy government officials and their election system that only offer deception.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide." - Dr. Jerry Pournelle
Posted by cfin5

Jerry Pournelle? The sci-fi hack that also offers idiotic commentary about computers? the guy who calls his office Chaos Manor? riiiight.

Next time, try L. Ron Hubbard. These guys write fiction for a living, dude.

[sgtrds]

Edwards/Clark ''08.

[iceman_1960]

"Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide." - Dr. Jerry Pournelle
- Posted by cfin5 at 12:40 AM : Dec 30, 2007

See also:

"Liberalism is extremely harmful in a revolutionary collective. It is a corrosive which eats away unity, undermines cohesion, causes apathy and creates dissension. It robs the revolutionary ranks of compact organization and strict discipline, prevents policies from being carried through and alienates the Party organizations from the masses which the Party leads. It is an extremely bad tendency."
- Mao Zedong

(No wonder Richard Nixon loved the guy)

[cfin5]

Matt Drudge, Internet Journalist; Founder, The Drudge Report; Talk Radio Host

%u201CIf you go up and down the issues literally, as far as no more government no matter what. Just please no more government and all of these issues on closed government, on IDs, on cameras - all the things that are true to my heart, Ron Paul comes out the winner.%u201D

[radiob-2009]

Candidates Fighting To The Finish


Why are they wasting all of their energy, your money and time for when Tweb has already declared me president as of 12/22/07 and I reluctantly accepted.
And for any naysayers there were no hanging Chads, I do not even know a Chad to hang.

[realpatriot1]

SgtRDS,

Good choice of ticket but since Wes is not the best on the stump I prefer him as Sec. of Defense.

Radiob,

As your first act in office will you place Bush & Cheney before a military tribunal or extradite them to the Hague?

As long as we''re fantasising we might as well really enjoy it!

By the way, I''m available for Chairperson of OMB.

[radiob-2009]

By the way, I''''m available for Chairperson of OMB.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by realpatriot1

How about Secretary of the Treasury? Homeland director formersarge and Attorney General Searing Truth are working on having Bush/Cheney tried as we speak.

[realpatriot1]

radiob,

OK,Sec. of the Treasury does pay better than my current state accounting job, I''ll take it! Just one caveat, I don''t serve at the pleasure of the President so don''t go Larry Craig on me.

I''m sure Searing Truth will bring them in dead or alive before Osama comes out to see his shadow.

[perception5]

FYI, two new polls out of Iowa have Mitt Romney re-taking the lead in Iowa.

ARG poll has Mitt at 32% to Slick Huck''s 23%
Mason Dixon Poll has Mitt at 27% and Slick Huck at 23%

........GO MITT! the most qualified candidate running from either party in 2008, no question about it.

[radiob-2009]

Posted by realpatriot1

There are no known Larry Craigs in the new adminstration and I have a do not ask policy.


Hmmm a New Groundhog day??? Maybe a national holiday when all three show their "shadow".

[jack3213]

Clinton is a disgrace to all other women, (as my wife & other women have said), for allowing herself to accept the level of lies her husband has put forth onto the USA when he was in office. He parades now and supports her and we all know he wants to redeem himself. This isn''t about qualifications or what is in the best interest of the country but what is best for the Clintons. They are the most manipulative people on earth, that deserves nothing more than to be ignored. Those who don''t see through their facade are as blind as bats. Sorry, it''s true and the rest of us know it. She has contridicted herself and made grand promises that will never amount to anything, some of which should not. She has downgraded others and have not once explained what exactly she has done to prove she is experianced. Just saying you are is not enough. Clinton/Bush era is over. Time of real change. Isn''t that what we all want?!

[homespunlady]

ZZZZZZZZ... snort, huh

Whatever happened to Bush''s "pocket VETO" of the Defense Bill.

Swept UNDER the carpet I guess.

Oh well, back to the Crockpot of homemade soup and a nap.

NO news here.

[aminor3x]

I think that Mr. Magic Underwear Romney and Mr. Adultery and Abortion Giuliani had might as well stay home from Iowa. Maybe the folks in New Hampshire like that kind of ***, but we don''t tolerate it here. We call it "foolishness".

[billyjoe1776]

Who''s the small geovernment conservative in this race?
is anyone other than Dr. Paul trying to reduce the size and power of government? How can we cut taxes without cutting spending?

Before you listen to Rudy McHuckaThom tell you how they are going to use government to solve all your problems, think about how government contributed to your problems in the first place.

[merlgrey]

Why has Ron Paul received more donations from active-duty soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines than any other Republican presidential candidate?

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/veterans/