3 years and basically living in Iowa with your exclusive job - WINNING

shows that Iowans didn't fully buy into JE, even though his ONLY real job of the last few years was gearing up for Iowa and being POTUS, while the other candidates actually had another job those 3 years. JE had name recognition from 04, definitly more name recog than Obamma. JE practically lived in Iowa and totally targeted those voters FOR YEARS, so "less media attention" really doesn't count when you consider that he spent 100% of his time trying to woo the Iowa voters...and how about Huckabee? He was totally out spent and didn't have any name recognition and wasn't getting media attention.....He managed now didn't he?

And just as good, even though msm crowned HC 3 years ago as hands down being unbeatable (even before she announced her candidacy), she came in 3rd to someone who started out with less name recognition and a later start.....

Still not sure about Obamma, but happy with the voters careful thought showing that the media did NOT sway them. My confidence in the voters have really been lifted, my confidence in the system is still out.

thanks

misspellings, typical of someone who supports JE after all of the "MISTAKES" he made in the Senate and evidently got so much FORGIVENESS FOR.... funny support a guy who MISTAKENLY voted to put us into a stupid fucking war, supported Patriot Act, voted for Bankruptcy bill, gets YOUR support but you try to criticize me because I spelled a NAME incorrectly........

Iowa voters aren't like the rubes in the rest of the country. Iowans are not going to be swayed by media influence, but the rest of America will.

If no one else agrees with you, they've been swayed, not you. Uh huh.

I was saying that Iowans take their caucuses very seriously and thoroughly research each candidate, whereas MANY in America just vote for whoever the TV says is ahead. Has nothing to do with who I'm for.

I'll stack up the independence of Vermont voters as a whole over Iowans any old day. We would never elect a Grassley to the Senate or any conservative to Congress. And NH voters are pretty damned savvy as are voters in other states.

Romney spent about as much as Clinton did, but the only people motivated to come out were the Christian Right voters. Everyone else stayed home on the Repub side, so I don't think it's fair to compare Huckabee and Edwards.

"Rock Star" who spent one and a half times as much as big spender Clinton on ads alone, who was popular with the kids and who was the "Senator next door." Many of his caucusing supporters were kids from IL who just rolled over the line to where they go to school in IA to support the guy.

Edwards had name recognition as a fairly conservative second banana to Kerry--a role he fulfilled precisely as he was asked, and I credit him for that. He has had an uphill effort to "rework his brand" from southern, steady, traditional Dem to Populist-Progressive Man of the People.

It's Obama, FWIW, not "Obamma."

...caucused last night for Democrats.

I'm not sure how many "Illinois kids" were bussed in. I haven't heard anything about this
and being an Iowan, I'm interested.

I know that Iowa college students return home during winter break, and the caucuses were held
during their winter break. The Iowa Democratic Party, as well as the candidates urged their
college supporters to return to Iowa to vote. After all, these college students are Iowa
citizens and they are registered to vote in the state of Iowa. They were just temporarily
home with their families for three weeks during the holiday.

Iowans came out of the woodwork, and caucused. As I said, more than 240,000 of them--for
the Democrats alone. Many of these Iowans who caucused registered to vote that night. They
were new to the process. At least half of the caucus participants in my precinct were newly
registered voters. I checked everyone in, and there were so many who needed to register to
vote that my husband had to step in and help people register.

If Obama or other candidates did make it easy for Iowa college students to return to Iowa and
caucus, I think that's wonderful. However, I believe the impact would have been minuscule,
considering that 240,000 Iowa Democrats caucused that night.

I would love more information about this if you can provide it. Thanks so much!

:)

maybe the last 7 years have awakened the sleeping dragon and this electorate is ready to take our nation back. DEATH TO APATHY!!!

You know damn well, that Republicans are sitting around big, marble conference
tables right now scared out of their fricking minds.

The Democrats just increased turnout by 100 PERCENT in the nation's most recent election!!!

Have all of us digested this reality??????

When I was checking the Obama folks in, I had a list of caucus goers who had been contacted
and said they would attend. I was told to cross names off as people showed up, and then call
those who didn't show--to see if they needed a ride. Forty-five minutes before the caucus,
I set aside the list, because most of my Obama people were not on a list!

These were people who were not even registered to vote! They weren't on our radar screen
because they weren't on the voter rolls.

They were entirely new to the political process. However, they came out and they caucused
last night.

In 04--a record breaking year for attendance, 125,000 Iowans caucused. Last night, 230,000
Iowans caucused.

Can you imagine...what this means for the Democrats in the November general election? What
if we were able to get a 100 percent increase in voter turnout...like what just happened
in Iowa?

I believe it's not only possible, but probable. My state is no different. We're all living
under the same shame that is George Bush. Citizens of this country are disgusted. It's
not just Democrats either. I saw many Independents at the caucus and my next-door neighbors
who voted for Bush TWICE, were caucusing for Edwards!

This is a phenomena that I am betting we will see in NH, SC and all the way into Nov 4, where
we're going to win so big--the Republicans won't be able to steal it.

Nothing 'wrong' with that--it's in the caucus and election rules for Iowa--it is allowed and not illegal at all. But it was a factor.

And he IS the Senator next door. IL and IA share some media markets. He's not an "unknown" in the region as a consequence.

It's the Gephardt effect. Mitt Romney is praying it will work for him in NH, as NH and MA share a border and some media markets as well. Mitt also vacations at his million plus dollar lake home in NH, and spent more time there than in MA when he was governor.

I went to school in Boston, with kids from all fifty states. They didn't consider themselves citizens of MA. They just didn't. They considered themselves to be college students studying in MA who actually were citizens of California, New York, Florida, India, wherever. But if they weren't from the city, they didn't claim they were just to vote. They did the absentee thing.

I'll wager most of those student caucusers aren't going to be anywhere near Iowa in ten years. They're not gonna settle down there. They are "citizens for now," temporary Iowans. But like I said, the state rules allow it.

This isn't a big surprise, either--it was talked about as a factor before the caucuses even happened, as well as in the post-caucus analyses. Some links:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/22/johnson.iowa.students/
In an effort to keep tabs on students, the Obama campaign has spent the better part of this year collecting student supporters' cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses.



http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/12/question_of_iowa_student_voting_flares_into_major_issue.php
For those of you who haven't followed this, the Obama campaign, which has heavily courted the youth vote, has been working very hard to persuade Iowa students who live out of state that they should register for the caucuses and support him. The Obama camp has distributed 50,000 copies of a flyer saying: "If you are not from Iowa, you can come back for the Iowa caucus and caucus in your college neighborhood."



http://chronicle.com/blogs/election/1323/youth-vote-seen-as-key-to-obama-win-in-iowa
Youth Vote Seen as Key to Obama Win in Iowa
Polls of last night’s Iowa caucusgoers all seem to point to the same bottom-line conclusion: The Democratic winner, Barack Obama, benefited greatly from a big turnout among young voters, who favored him by overwhelming margins.

Surveys of those entering caucuses, conducted on behalf of the National Election Poll—a consortium of media organizations, including CNN and the Associated Press—found that 17 percent of Democratic caucusgoers were in the 17-24 age bracket, while another 5 percent were ages 25 to 29. Obama received the support of 57 percent of caucusgoers 29 and younger, giving him more than five times as much support from this age group as Hillary Clinton, who received the support of 11 percent. Among the Democrats, John Edwards posted the second-best showing among under-30 caucusgoers, winning the support of 14 percent.

...Although the Iowa caucus polls do not distinguish whether those polled are college students, it appears that many out-of-state students enrolled at Iowa campuses did not heed suggestions from the Clinton campaign and a prominent Des Moines Register columnist, David Yepsen, that they stay away for winter break and leave the caucusing to longtime state residents. As the Chronicle reported last month, some colleges agreed to reopen facilities to house students who returned to caucus, and many students returned to the state to take part in the political event.

However, I think it's highly unlikely that any students who were "bussed back" to Iowa
had any significant impact on the caucus, because 230,000 Democrats caucused.

I understand that Obama overwhelmingly won the youth vote. However, it's not likely
that very many of those caucusing for him were out-of-state students who were bussed in.

All precincts are reporting a 100 percent increase in caucus participation, from last year.

Most overwhelming majority of Iowa precincts don't have a large university or college in
the area. So again, the effect of any "bussed in" students would be like a few drops
in a bucket.

I didn't hear about these busses...or students being bussed in either. So, I'm assuming
this was not a widespread phenomena. Or am I wrong?

In my caucus, I had several college students. However, they were all registered to vote
in their Iowa home towns, not their college town. I actually had more high school students
than college students caucusing for Obama--and I noticed this on the Edwards side as well.

I understand what you're saying, but I feel that any students who were "bussed in" were
so very small in numbers that in the scheme of things---with 230,000 Iowans caucusing, that
the result was probably minuscule, if at all.

more of them may have voted for hillary. insulting the intelligence of the college kids who are politically active sealed the vote for barrack.

I saw the number of days and was really surprised that he spent less time there than the other two...

More spin/lies as usual promulgated by the media....with that hint of disdain that is so endearing....and then echoed willingly.

Er, how much time did Obama really spend in Washington...he's been running before he even got there...

and Edwards spent a great deal of Time in Iowa both this past year and the 2 years preceding it. In addition, as Edwards started running for prez while he was in the Senate, you look a wee bit hypocritical complaining about Obama doing the same thing. But I'm getting used to the bitterness of Edwards supporters.