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US candidates make final pleas
02/01/2008 21:13 - (SA)
Des Moines, Iowa - White House hopefuls on Wednesday beseeched the people of Iowa to take the first step to change America, on the eve of the state's dead-heat first nominating clash of the 2008 election.
After the longest, most dollar-soaked campaign in history, political activists in Iowa will on Thursday cast their judgements in the fabled Iowa caucuses which have a history of making, or breaking presidential dreams.
Thousands of canvassers for Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and other top contenders fanned out across the state, offering rides, babysitting, and even snow shovels - all to moblise supporters on a cold winter night.
Polls show the Democratic race a three-way dogfight between Clinton, Obama and ex-vice presidential nominee John Edwards. Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney were battling for first place among Republicans, with John McCain resurgent.
On a frenetic day when candidates zigzagged to competing rallies across the midwestern state, voters were braced for a barrage of final, pleading campaign ads across prime-time television.
'Hope and change'
"After seven long years of this administration, we finally have the opportunity for a new beginning," Clinton, who is tilting at history with her bid to be the first woman president, was to say in her spot.
"Tomorrow, you can take the first step."
Obama, vying to become America's first black president, said the caucuses encapsulated the message of hope and change underpinning his campaign.
"Imagining and then fighting for what did not seem possible before - and that's where we are 48 hours from now," he said.
"That's what's within our grasp, if we're willing to fight for it, willing to cast aside the fear, and the doubt and the cynicism - then we can change the country."
Huckabee, who has been trading punches with former Massachusetts governor Romney for weeks, planned an unorthodox campaign swing - flying to California for Jay Leno's late-night talk show, which returns after a writer's strike.
But reminding key evangelical voters of Huckabee's religious roots, an ad portraying the former Baptist minister as a "Christian leader" blared on Iowa radio: some analysts have seen the spot as a jab at Romney's Mormon religion.
The key to the Democratic race looked to hang on whether Obama could get legions of previously fickle young and first-time caucus goers who flock to his campaign events to show up on Thursday.
Quirky caucus system
Clinton, though also targeting first-time caucus goers, holds events packed with older, and female voters - a demographic more likely to caucus in large numbers and Edwards still hoped to surge between the two rivals to victory.
The forecast in the state augured a large turnout with frigid -11 C expected on Thursday, but no return of the blizzards of recent days.
The quirky caucus system requires voters to show up at around 1 800 precinct meetings throughout Iowa's 99 counties, to personally vouch for favoured candidates. Democrats hold open meetings. Republicans use a straw poll.
New polls previewed the next key clash in New Hampshire on Tuesday, and reflected Arizona Senator McCain's stunning comeback after his campaign was left for dead in mid-2007.
He was tied in a CNN/WMUR poll in the north-eastern state with Romney, who had led for months there, on 29%.
A national Pew poll showed McCain on 22% ahead of former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani on 20% and Huckabee on 17%.
Giuliani, the long-time national pace-setter is largely a spectator in Iowa and New Hampshire, with a high-risk strategy aimed at making a splash in later voting, and larger, more liberal states like Florida and New York.
The latest polls were bad news for Romney, who likely needs victories in both Iowa and New Hampshire to become viable nationwide.
Obama, who planned a late-night eve of caucus rally is basking in a Des Moines Register poll which gave him a surprise seven-point lead, although Clinton's team said it was inaccurate.
Deepening the tension, two other polls had Clinton leading. Zogby had Clinton up 30% to 26%. A CNN/Opinion Research poll has her on 33%, Obama on 31 and John Edwards on 22.
- AFP
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