Friday, January 4, 2008

Hawkeye Cauci Update--Barack Obama Takes Iowa

Mike Huckabee (31%) tops the GOP Iowa contest as Mitt Romney (23%) concedes. (via NY Times). Among the Democrats, live blogger Kathryn Seelye reports from Des Moines that Barack Obama appears to be pulling away from both John Edwards (whom he is beating in the conservative areas) and Hillary Clinton (whom he is beating everywhere). The De Moines Register has Mr. Obama at 36% while Edwards and Clinton could go into a photo finish, both currently at 31% with 75% of precincts already counted. Hmm, looks like Evans and Novak were spot on yesterday. Glenn Reynolds notes that Fox News has called Iowa for Barack Obama.

UPDATE: The ongoing analysis confirms that Barack Obama has decisively beaten Hillary Clinton in Iowa among women, youth and first time caucus voters. The big story on the GOP side is Mike Huckabee's nine point win over Gov. Mitt Romney, despite being outspent 15 to 1. Pajamas Media has a big roundup of Iowa caucus results and commentary.

SEEN: Mrs. Obama is a tall, willowy, self-assured woman who would not look out of place in a Miss America beauty pageant. Saw her for the first time on CNN this evening with their two daughters as Papa delivered a trademark Obama speech--graceful, restrained but potent in this early victory. Wow! With a $100 million war chest as big or bigger than Hillary's, he will be a formidable candidate in this election.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

What? No news on the Republican caucus?

Deany Bocobo said...

Check the lead HB. It's Mike Huckabee for the GOP in Iowa. Where's Hillary?

Unknown said...

Ooops, mea culpa, didn't read the column - stopped at the title.

gbd said...

i don't think Mitt Romney conceeded.

stuart-santiago said...

wow kulelat si hillary. i thought she had it all sewn up until oprah declared for obama. race trumps gender.

Deany Bocobo said...

stuart santiago...well it's just Iowa. She has some big states lined up, however she could get her nose bloodied in New Hampshire. We never know. That's what makes this so exciting!

stuart-santiago said...

yes it's an exciting race. my bet's on obama. unless hillary comes up with an endorsement as powerful as oprah's.

Anonymous said...

Can you believe this? Obama, reepeat that, Obama as president of the USA? What's in a name, ano?

Hillary is in a panic mood so, watch out for the dirty tricks. The lying couple knows how to play this game all too well.

Amadeo said...

Before the actual voting, former Iowa Gov. Vilsack, a Hillary operative, was noted as promising to deliver solid to her the Asian and Pacific Islanders vote in Iowa, all over 4,000 of them.

Unfortunately, not many FilAms in the group, mostly Vietnamese boatpeople. But Hillary still lost the count.

Deany Bocobo said...

Amadeo,
Hehe, I guess that's really bad news, losing the Vietnamese Boat People too!

Amadeo said...

Dean:

Hillary may have lost in Iowa bigger than what media may have reported. She brought her entire national campaign to Iowa to ensure a win. It was reported that she had as many as 5,000 vehicles (I believe I heard it right)at her disposal in case of need to ferry voters to their precincts.

About 214,000 came to the Democrats' caucuses, a record number. Really? The small city of SF has almost a million residents.

But just as quickly, her Iowa offices were empty before the caucus night was over. On to NH. So, expect a Hillary resurgence with a vengeance in the next venue.

Dave said...

The Rs appear headed for a brokered convention. In the absence of an Eisenhower or Reagan, this is not bad. Settling things in smoke-filled rooms produces better cadidates who can actually be President than does the primary system which is largely a beauty contest.

The Ds look like a big tussle between the suits (Hilary) and the insurgents (Obama). I wish Barry all the luck. He might be able to break the top-down chokehold imposed on a once-great coalition. If so, the results might be bad for my party (R) but will do long-term good for my country.

Off the subject a bit but still on interest: Did you follow Sarkozys vist to the US? It was best described as "Pershing! We are here!" Donchaluvit when a plan comes together.