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Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Swamp Iowa
ANCHORS: LINDA WERTHEIMER, STEVE INSKEEP
LINDA WERTHEIMER, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer in for Renee
Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
You sense, when you talk to people in the presidential campaigns, that they're a little tired
of this business. They've been running for months or years, and they still have two
months before the first voting in Iowa. So over the weekend, the Democratic contenders
return there. They appeared for the annual Jefferson-Jackson Day Democratic fundraising
banquet. It was an occasion for Barack Obama and John Edwards to highlight their
differences with the frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
SCOTT HORSLEY: With less than eight weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, Ankeny,
Iowa voter Melanie Volk(ph) is still shopping for a favorite candidate. She hasn't quite
fallen for frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
Ms. MELANIE VOLK (Resident, Ankeny, Iowa): I guess it might be inevitable that she's
going to be the Democratic candidate. And with that, I want to find a (unintelligible) of
this quarter, but have yet not found it.
HORSLEY: Volk was in Des Moines Sunday to hear John Edwards deliver a speech.
Edwards and the other Democrats are doing everything they can to unravel Clinton's
cloak of inevitability.
Mr. JOHN EDWARDS (Democrat, Former Senator of North Carolina): We're not going
to do any good if we replace corporate Republicans with corporate Democrats. It won't
work. Nothing will change.
HORSLEY: Unlike Republican presidential candidates who were dividing their attention
among several early voting states, the Democrats' battle is focused in Iowa. Clinton's lead
in polls here is in the single digits. And for Edwards, who trails both Clinton and Barack
Obama in fundraising, the first week of voting could be make or break time. And he
sounds like he knows it.
Mr. EDWARDS: You are, Iowans, the guardians of what kind of president we'll have and
whether America meets the great challenges we face. I'm not afraid to stand here and
answer your tough questions and to tell you where I stand. In fact, I've done that and
everyone of the 99 counties here in the state of Iowa.
HORSLEY: Edwards has gone after Clinton for accepting campaign contributions from
lobbyists. Obama has also begun to draw distinctions with Clinton. Although political
analyst Dianne Bystrom of Iowa State University says Obama is doing it in a kinder,
gentler way.
Ms. DIANNE BYSTROM (Director, Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and
Politics, Iowa State University): It's interesting to me because the John Edwards
that I saw in 2003 was very much like the Obama I see this year - the candidate of
hope, the centrist candidate.
HORSLEY: But like Edwards, Obama would love to slow the Clinton bandwagon in
Iowa. The Illinois senator appeared on "Meet the Press" yesterday in an hour- long
interview from Des Moines.
Senator BARACK OBAMA (Democrat, Illinois): The politics of hope doesn't mean
hoping that people aren't going to point out difference. Look, we're running for the
presidency in the United States of America, not student council president. If I believe one
of my opponents is potentially going to take the party or the country in a direction that
does not meet our challenges, does not take advantage of the opportunities that are
available, I'm going to point it out.
HORSLEY: Obama did just that during a fundraising dinner Saturday night. Without
mentioning Clinton by name, he said the Democrats need to lead by conviction, not
calculation.
Sen. OBAMA: The same old Washington textbook campaigns just won't do in this
election. Triangulating and poll-driven positions, because we're worried about what Mitt
or Rudy might say about us, just won't do.
HORSLEY: Speaking at the same dinner, Clinton said she's less interested in attacking
her opponents than attacking the problems of America. She said instead of turning on one
another, the Democrats should be turning up the heat on Republicans.
Senator HILLARY CLINTON (Democrat, New York): I know how easy it is in a
campaign to get distracted, to focus on who's up and who's down and who says what
about whom. But that's not what this election is about. This election is about those
Iowans and those Americans who feel invisible in their own country, who feel invisible
to their own president.
HORSLEY: Iowans are getting plenty of visibility these days, thanks to the Klieg lights
of media attention the candidates have brought to their state. Melanie Volk, who was out
early Sunday to hear Edwards speak, is trying to live up to the task.
Ms. VOLK: There's a heavy weight on the Iowa shoulders I think. But we're definitely
going to caucus, and we're going to get babysitters for the kids then we'd go out and we
are, you know, trying to hear everybody. We're going to, you know, take it seriously
because I think we have a really important role to play.
HORSLEY: Volk and her neighbors may still vote for any of the several candidates.
Maybe that's why those candidates and their musical supporters are spending more time
in Iowa than anywhere else.
Unidentified Man (singing): All right. Let's hear it from everybody one time who wants
to board the train. All aboard- say it with me.
(Soundbite of cheers)
Unidentified Man (singing): Yeah. We're going to take the train to the White House.
HORSLEY: Scott Horsley, NPR News, Des Moines.