December 4, 2007

Barack Obama is Winning in Iowa


The winds of change continue to blow in favor of Sen. Barack Obama. The Des Moines Register is a leading newspaper in Iowa, where the first votes of the US presidential race will be cast on January 3. This poll shows:

  1. Barack Obama leading the race with support from 28 percent of likely voters (up from 22% in October).
  2. Hillary Clinton was in 2nd place with likely Iowa voters at 25% (down from 29% last month).
  3. John Edwards stayed steady at 23% of the vote.
Even more significant in some respects is the fact that Obama leads with support from 31 percent of women likely attend the caucuses, compared to 26 percent for Clinton. In October, Clinton was the preferred candidate of 34 percent of women caucusgoers, compared to 21 percent for Obama. In other words, there has been a switch of 18% among likely women voters in this state towards Obama.

Iowa City Democrat Katharyn Browne said she abandoned her support for Clinton in the past month and now supports Obama in light of the Iran issue. Clinton supported a measure that allowed President Bush to declare the Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, a move Obama said was a step toward war. Clinton said the measure enhanced U.S. negotiating strength with Iran.

Browne said she feels Obama is a more inspirational candidate than Clinton, despite the intensifying crossfire between them. "I just think that Obama is more of a positive candidate overall," she said. "Aside from the Clinton-Obama interaction lately, it's nice to hear a candidate with a positive outlook. I think our country needs that right now."

Browne, who supported Clinton early partly out of gender loyalty, represents a shift among some women caucusgoers from Clinton to Obama.

Hopefully this is a trend that will impact on Black women around the country. I've noticed some caustic remarks by Black women bloggers and blog readers on Barack Obama. It appears that Iowa women (few of whom are Black) are realizing that Barack and Michelle Obama is better for their future than Billary.

On the Republican side I see that Gov. Mike Huckabee also overtook the frontrunner. Huckabee's rise is a direct result of his outstanding performance in recent televised debates. I think it is critical that Barack Obama wins a few of the upcoming televised debates this month. He has the character, positions and skills to be a remarkable POTUS.

He needs to apply the knock-out punch to Clinton in the next 30 days.

Villagers, the first votes will be cast one month from today. How are you leaning now? If you had a chance to vote today in the Democratic primary ... who would you cast your vote for?

2 comments:

maryt/theteach said...

I hope so, Villager!

Unknown said...

Teach - Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee are both moving in a upward motion. Both are positive candidates with a bright outlook for the future of our country. I think that it would be great if they were both nominated by their parties to run for the office in 2008...