Jan 4, 2008

[US Politics] The Big Winners in Iowa

Flickr: Marilyn M - Barack, keeping hope alive in America...
Barack, keeping hope alive in America...
by Marilyn M.


Well that was certainly interesting.

The results are pretty much in and the Iowa caucuses have come out with some rather surprising results. On the Democratic side, Barack Obama managed an impressive lead of 8 points with 38% of all votes with Edwards following with 30% and Hillary Clinton thereafter with only 29%. For the Republicans, it was small-scale Mike Huckabee who managed to take a significant lead of 34% of the votes followed by Romney's 25% - a 9 point lead with 95 percent of the precincts reporting. Thompson and McCain had 13% while Paul only managed 10%.

It's interesting to note that Clinton didn't rank second (although some may argue it's only as matter of one percentage point) which somewhat says something about how people have been receiving her rather strong campaign thus far. Obama's victory wasn't about convincing long-time voters to support him but to get new young voters out of their homes and into the polls despite them previously being largely vocal but not very good in terms of the actual follow-through.

This year's Iowa caucuses saw an amazing turn-out largely driven by younger, newer participants and this is precisely the kind of support that may carry Obama throughout the rest of the campaign unless his competitors change tactics significantly.

Of course this is just one state and we still have a long road ahead of us before the actual presidential elections in November. Still, if Iowa is any indicator, this can be pretty much anyone's game and only the most dynamic and determined candidates are going to make it to the finish line.

2 comments:

  1. Though I count myself as a Democrat... for the life of me I can't see why McCain isn't doing as well as I think that he would.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have to admit that I found that bit a bit surprising myself. He seemed to be making bit more sense than some of the others in the debates.

    I guess that just goes to show the power of the evangelicals.

    ReplyDelete