WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, 7:32 p.m. — The first round of results are in: Before the critical realignment stage of the Democratic caucus in this precinct, here’s an update from West Des Moines, Precinct 111:
Joe Biden: 7
Hillary Clinton: 75
Chris Dodd: 9
John Edwards: 49
Barack Obama: 99
Bill Richardson: 22
They tallied 264 caucus-goers in attendance, so I’m missing 3, but you can see the trend here in West Des Moines. The viability threshold of 15% means a candidate must have 40 votes to remain viable. They’re realigning now.
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, 7:27 p.m. — The library at Hillside Elementary School in West Des Moines was packed. Outside the door, bright-eyed women wore bandoliers of Hillary stickers and handed out cookies to caucus-goers.
“Are you supporting Hillary? Supporting Hillary? That corner in the back, that’s where we are.”
The Iowa caucuses began at 7:00 o’clock tonight across the Hawkeye state, ending months of media and inside-the-Beltway speculation about which Democratic and Republican candidates would win the first voting of the year. In West Des Moines, however, Iowans acted as though they had simply gathered to chat about the neighborhood.
NEW HAVEN, Conn., 10:00 a.m. — Senator Barack Obama topped all other candidates by a two-to-one margin in a recent Yale Daily News poll. A commanding victory, right?
Well, sure — but nothing compared to the support he found among young voters in the influential Des Moines Register poll released Monday night.
A whopping 56 percent of likely caucus participants between the ages of 18 and 34 support the Illinois senator, according to the poll, considered the most important gauge of electoral support leading up to tonight’s caucus. That’s three-and-a-half times the support that any other Democratic candidate received from that demographic.
Sixteen percent supported former Senator John Edwards, and 11 percent backed Senator Hillary Clinton LAW ’73.
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, 10:30 p.m. — There’s very little that’s new about a John Edwards rally.On stage at the Val Air Ballroom, the former North Carolina Senator hits the same chords he does all across Iowa — respect for the working man, a fight against special interests and a restoration of decency in Washington.
The gestures are practiced, the endorsements just those he mentioned three nights ago and it would be hard to call Edwards’ choice of celebrity – rocker John Cougar Mellencamp – a fresh face. Even some of the supporters, like 69-year-old Joe Kucera, were right there with the Senator on his first go-around in 2004.
CENTERVILLE, Iowa, 7:58 a.m. – We finally saw one of the candidates this morning. But it wasn’t in any large auditorium; it was in the intimate confines of an Iowan family home.
CENTERVILLE, Iowa, 7:08 a.m. – Perhaps it was the cinnamon rolls, or maybe just the excitement in the Kury house that prompted me to become a bit braver than usual.
The national media had staked out the household, and as we fought one another for precious territory in the dining room, Senator John Edwards made his appearance. Normally, I would have remained in my small space and shot the necessary photos of the candidate greeting supporters and dutifully eating the pancakes Mrs. Kury had laid out before him. However, on this occasion, an unusual friendliness overtook me.
IOWA CITY, Iowa, 11:33 a.m. — Mike Juntunen didn’t go home for Christmas. No, the 26-year-old University of Iowa freshman was busy spreading his own version of holiday cheer — the message of former North Carolina Senator John Edwards.
Juntunen is co-president of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes for John Edwards, which is responsible in part for marshaling Edwards’ student forces in the Iowa City/Johnson County area and doing outreach to surrounding rural counties. He’s optimistic about the former senator’s chances on Thursday night.
“A straight-up tie really means John Edwards wins Iowa by three or four points because that’s the proportion of the second-place votes we’re going to win,” he predicts.
IOWA CITY, Iowa, 9:34 AM – The buzz across Iowa this morning is the new Des Moines Register poll released last night. Matt is on Barack Obama’s text message mailing list, so when the results of the poll were released, we found out that the Illinois Senator had pulled ahead to a 32-25-24 lead over Sen. Clinton and former Sen. Edwards. That’s significant – the Register is calling Obama’s gains “the largest lead of any of the Democratic candidates in the Register’s poll all year.”
But Zogby International’s daily tracking poll isn’t showing any “O”-mentum. At least not yet: Zogby still puts Hillary in the lead at 30%, followed by Obama and Edwards at 26 and 25, respectively, in polling conducted between 12/28 and 12/31.
There are discrepancies between the two polls on the Republican side as well, but nothing as dramatic – both polls put Huckabee at the top of the list, followed by Romney and McCain.
We’re going to try to get some analysis here later. Check back soon.
Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards called attention to the growing divide between moneyed corporate interests and working man’s values at a rally in Sioux City Sunday night
SIOUX CITY, Iowa, 9:43 p.m. — Tom Petty must have been proud. And Bruce Springsteen. And John Mellencamp and John Fogerty.
Elizabeth Edwards’ introduction of her husband was almost superfluous after the battery of American classic-rock anthems that preceded it – the crowd got the message: John Edwards stands for you. And America.
The former senator from North Carolina held the floor of the Sioux City Convention Center for almost an hour Sunday night, preaching classic themes of right and wrong, good and evil and the working man against the corporation.
“My belief is that corporate greed has infected every part of the government,” Edwards said. “When you go to caucus on Thursday night, you better send a fighter into that arena.”
Edwards claims to be just that fighter. Drawing on his 20 years as a trial lawyer in North Carolina, Edwards touched on health care, college tuition fees and pork-barrel spending in his denouncement of moneyed corporate interests that he said “have a stranglehold on your democracy.”
The crowd loved it. Edwards was interrupted with applause time and time again — once by a standing ovation in the middle of his prepared remarks.
“I thought he was truthful and honest,” Sioux City resident Gary Turbes said at the end of the event. “He’s got a vision for the future.”
