2004 Presidential Election
Mike Littwin writes about the surge of support for John Kerry in Iowa, in his column in today's Rocky Mountain News [January 19, 2004, "Littwin: Kerry suddenly out of the shadows and into the lead"]. Says Littwin, "Let's see. The last time we checked in on John Kerry, he was still being dismissed as - and I don't want to leave anything out - too long-winded, too cerebral, too aloof, too Washington, too little, too late to become the Democratic nominee for president. And those were the nicest things anyone had to say. I read one pundit who said, maybe ungenerously in retrospect, that Kerry had run the worst campaign of all time. Have people already forgotten Michael Dukakis? But you can understand the sentiment. After all, the Massachusetts senator, who came into the race as the front-runner, had been chased out of neighboring New Hampshire by Howard Dean, who forced him to go to Iowa - west of Elba - to revive his candidacy. Meanwhile, Democratic stalwarts - Gore, Bradley, Harkin - who each might conceivably have endorsed Kerry, had all come out for Dean, who is attempting to become the first-ever insurgent/establishment hybrid candidate. And Kerry was left insisting he had found energy in his campaign that no one else seemed to be able to locate."
The last Zogby Tracking poll before tonight's Iowa caucuses has John Kerry leading Howard Dean 25% to 22% with John Edwards third at 21% and Dick Gephardt fourth with 18%. Now it's up to Iowans to give us the final tallies this evening. The Iowa caucuses are interesting in that if your candidate does not get 15% at a particular caucus location you are able to switch your support over the evening. The whole process can last 2 hours or more.
No matter the outcome of this year's Presidential election, Howard Dean's campaign will emerge as using Internet technologies in the most innovative manner in history. They've introduced new concepts at a dizzying rate, forcing all other campaigns, including President Bush's, to follow suit. Working with Dave Winer they've created a new RSS feed called channel Dean. The link is to their RSS feed so you need an RSS aggregator to read it (or an editor that displays XML). Here's an FAQ about the project and here's Dave Winer's post today about the effort. Dave Winer's writing inspired me to create Coyote Gulch. You go Dave.
Howard Dean is still on top in New Hampshire according to the latest American Research Group tracking poll. The top three candidates in the poll are Dean with 28%, Wesley Clark, 20%, and John Kerry, 19%. John Edwards is in fourth with 8% with Undecided coming in at 15%.
Update: Our own Govenor Owens is blogging from Iowa.
Update: Caucus day post from Howard Dean.
Update: John Kerry won the Iowa caucuses on Monday night, John Edwards came in second with Howard Dean third. Dick Gephardt finished fourth. Here are the numbers from the Des Moines Register.
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