NCrumors.com, NC
06-13-06
Iowa gives Edwards pleasant surprise
Experts say frequent visits, goodwill help cause
The buzz among callers to Monday's "Talk of Iowa -- Dr. Politics" radio program
was Sunday's Des Moines Register Poll, and its surprise first-place showing for
Democrat John Edwards.
"It was the first shot in the (2008) war for the White House, and he came out
looking good," Iowa State University political scientist Steffen Schmidt, ask
Dr. Politics, told the Observer. "He got a lot of goodwill last time, and that
goodwill is still floating around."
Eighteen months before the nation's first 2008 contest, presidential politics are
well underway in Iowa. Sunday's poll, the first barometer of the state's caucuses,
is widely seen as a boost to North Carolina's former U.S. senator and his party's
vice-presidential nominee in 2004.
The poll showed Edwards favored by 30 percent of likely caucus-goers, ahead of
fellow hopefuls, including Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and John Kerry of
Massachusetts as well as Iowa's own governor, Tom Vilsack. Two years ago,
Edwards finished second to Kerry in the caucuses.
Edwards, who turned 53 over the weekend, continued a swing through the state
by campaigning Monday for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chet Culver in
Iowa City. It was Edwards' fifth visit of the year, and ninth since leaving the
Senate in 2005.
"That's one of the advantages of not having a job -- that you can give Iowa the
TLC, you know, the special attention they need," said Charlie Cook, editor of the
Washington-based Cook Political Report. "And that's something he can do and ...
Hillary Clinton cannot do."