Obama Wins Iowa Caucus, Edwards #2
Election Results Point to a Successful Presidential Campaign
Iowa State voters indicated the top election issue is to change leadership by choosing presidential candidates with a new management style.
Yesterday’s Democratic Iowa Caucus voters choose candidates whose Presidential campaign focused on change. Senator Barack Obama and John Edwards, who combined received two thirds of the votes cast in the Democratic primary, best symbolized that change. Obama focused election issues around the concept of “hope and change” while Edwards argued for the rights of the “middle class.”
John Edwards
Receiving 29.8% of the votes, the energetic former North Carolina Senator ran a spicy cost-effective and highly vitriolic campaign in Iowa. The self proclaimed champion of the American middle class, Edwards took his message of “corporate greed versus worker need” to the farms on the Iowa planes. Successfully presenting Hillary Clinton as the symbol of corporate America and the status quo, he also modestly projected Barack Obama as willing but unable to accomplish the difficult task of change.
In his conciliation speech in Des Moines Iowa, Edwards was able to point at both of his opponents. He said: “Change won, the status quo lost,” in reference to Hillary Clinton “and the fight is on to see if we’re going to have the kind of change we need” in reference to Barack Obama, “to save the middle class.” He went on to say: “The results show that the American people are ready for a president who will stand up to corporate greed and fight for hard-working families…and achieve real change in this country.”
Barack Obama
The big winner of the presidential candidate selection process in Iowa was Obama. Outpacing second place Edwards by 8 percentage points (Obama 37.6% - Edwards 29.8%); Obama successfully represented himself, in a positive uplifting manner, as the democratic candidate of change. Filling his speeches with inspiring visions of things to come, Obama was the antithesis of Edwards “the angry messenger.” David Brooks of the New York Times wrote in his January 3rd 2008 article, “Obama has achieved something remarkable….his speeches are…filled with disquisitions on the nature of hope and the contours of change.”
Feeding on the sentiment of the nation, it appears, Obama has found the pulse that has eluded so many Washington politicians. Matthew Yglesias, Associate Editor of The Atlantic Monthly wrote in his article “Obama’s Speech” on January 3rd 2008: “Certainly, in principle Obama more than anyone else epitomizes the new progressive coalition and wields the coalition behind him….The questions always been whether he can really deliver on that promise….he did.”
Election Issues
According to a December 1, 2007 CNN/Opinion Research Poll, democratic voters in Iowa felt change was the most important thing in the election of 2008. When question what issues need to be changed or where change should occur, the top 5 issues mentioned were:
- Free Trade/NAFTA/China
- Healthcare,
- The Economy
- Jobs/Employment
- War in Iraq
No one issue (according to the poll) received more than 65% approval as the most important national issue; John Edwards focused on only a few. Obama, on the other hand, was able to focus on the broader, less defined issue of “change” and was more successful in reaching the political sentiment of the Iowa democrats.
Related Article:
Mike Huckabee Wins Iowa Caucus
