Just like that, the year is now 2008 and the Iowa Caucus is slated for tomorrow. All of the campaigns are going nuts right about now (except for Rudy that is), scurrying about for caucus-goers to win Iowa town hall by town hall. It is an odd, old system they have over there in the Hawkeye state, but one nonetheless that is going to make or break many candidates. So how are the candidates doing it? All you have to do is take a look at either side of the partisan divide.
From The NY Times:
DES MOINES — On a bitterly cold New Year’s Day two days before the Iowa caucuses, the leading Democratic presidential candidates drew some of their largest crowds of this Iowa campaign season, while the top Republican contenders continued to ratchet up their attacks on one other.[...]
The Democratic side seemed to have more energy, as has been the case, with markedly larger crowds. Mr. Obama appeared to have a fresh bounce in his step as he set off on a fly-around tour of Iowa. His first event of the day drew more than 1,000 people here.[...]Mr. Edwards, meanwhile, began a 36-hour marathon campaign swing Tuesday, starting with an event in Ames attended by more than 500 people.
“I had people coming up to me after this event today and saying they came in for Senator Clinton, Senator Obama, and now they’re for me,” Mr. Edwards said at a news conference. “They just have to hear it, and they hear it and they hear it from me, and they respond.”
Obama and Edwards sound pretty positive, but the Republicans are doing what they do best, using fear....on each other:
As has been his pattern since his return to Iowa last week, Mr. Romney did not bring up Mr. Huckabee by name during his stump speeches Tuesday. But he bore into him in comments to reporters in Johnston, singling out a comment by Mr. Huckabee on Monday that was reported in The Quad City Times. According to the report, Mr. Huckabee took a shot at President Bush while defending himself from an embarrassing moment several weeks ago when it became clear that he did not know about a new National Intelligence Estimate about Iran’s nuclear program.
“President Bush didn’t read it for four years,” Mr. Huckabee was quoted as saying. “I don’t know why I should read it in four hours.”
Mr. Romney said, “This the kind of stuff you expect of the Democrats.”[...]
The new Web advertisement from the McCain campaign, aimed at Mr. Romney, features horrific images from what appears to be a suicide bombing.Three-quarters of the way into the advertisement, the first words are spoken as an image of Mr. Romney appears. “Mitt Romney says the next president doesn’t need foreign policy experience,” the narrator says.
Then simply, “John McCain for president.”
You can tell where the higher concentration of warm and fuzzies are here, but in all seriousness, it is easy to see that while the race between Obama, Edwards and Hillary are tight, the race on the right wobbles more than Romney's ability to flip-flop on the issues. Democrats are dedicated to their candidates more or less, while the GOP can't keep it's head on straight.
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