Obama wins the Democratic Primary! Wait! Wait! Stop everything! The winner is...Edwards!

And the Frontrunner Is... John Edwards?
Joe Klein scopes out an Iowa poll showing the former vice presidential candidate with a surprising lead among Democratic Presidential hopefuls. Is Hillary in trouble?

Edwards is on a roll. He's got his patter down on Iraq. He's got Elizabeth Edwards next to him, which is a secret campaign weapon as far as I'm concerned. But when he starts talking about poverty, the middle class and how to fix the problem, that's when his rhetoric meets the road.
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Democrat John Kerry regains luster with startling victory in Iowa caucuses
AP Worldstream (01-19-2004)
By DAVID ESPO


DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Sen. John Kerry's startling victory in the Iowa caucuses was a comeback for the ages, a late surge that remade the Democratic presidential race at the first turn.

On a fiercely cold winter's night, Iowa's grassroots Democrats also raised doubts about the staying power of Howard Dean's antiestablishment campaign, encouraged John Edwards to fight on and dealt Dick Gephardt out of the race.

The winnowing continues next Tuesday in New Hampshire, where the Iowa survivors and Sen. Joseph Lieberman and former NATO commander Wesley Clark clash in the first-in-the-nation primary.

Kerry's victory was as ironic as it was remarkable.

A fourth-term senator and Vietnam veteran, he joined the race as the presumptive front-runner, then lost ground steadily in 2003, plagued by his own fumbles as well as by Dean's more nimble campaign.

The campaign reached its nadir in November, when Kerry fired his campaign manager -- and then was forced to call him and two aides who subsequently quit to apologize for saying he'd be "better off" without them.

Even two weeks ago, the polls suggested Iowa was a race between Dean and Gephardt. But Kerry found his campaign voice near the end, and matched it to a strong get-out-the-vote operation at a time when many Iowans remained undecided.

In the campaign's final days, he was helped, as well, by Jim Rassmann, whose life he saved in harrowing conditions in Vietnam. The two held a reunion 35 years after the life-searing experience, and the retired Oregon police officer became a campaign supporting act unlike any other.

A survey of caucus-goers, done for The Associated Press and television networks to measure initial preferences, showed Kerry got an especially strong boost from voters who said the "right experience" was the most important candidate quality.

The same survey showed more than a third of caucus-goers made up their minds in the campaign's final week, and Kerry got the backing of 40 percent of them.

As winner, Kerry can count on a boost in the marathon struggle for the Democratic presidential nomination, but it's no guarantee of ultimate success.

Which helps explain why he, Kerry, Edwards and Gephardt invested many months and millions of dollars campaigning across the state.

And why Clark and Lieberman didn't.

Edwards did fine when asked for the leaders of Canada, Mexico, Iraq, Italy and Germany, correctly giving Matthews the last names of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, President Felipe Calderon, President Jalal Talabani, Premier Romano Prodi and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"What don't we know here," a seemingly surprised Matthews said, to which Edwards quickly taunted, "Keep going."

Edwards was tripped up only when asked for the leader of South Africa, unable to come up with President Thabo Mbeki.
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