He also makes clear that, despite the Clinton campaign's retraction of its comments about the youth vote, they are going to continue to try to spin Obama's lead in Iowa as the result of thousands of out-of-state students, who, according to Bill, have apparently never voted before. Never mind that young people in 2004 were 17% of caucus-goers, having quadrupled their turnout over the 2000 caucus. Never mind that Iowa students from out of state have always been treated as legitimate caucus-goers, and since the caucus has usually been held when classes were in session, have been the target of outreach efforts just like their peers born in Iowa. Bill is more interested in spinning the loss as the result of an invasion of outsiders --- outsiders who have lived and studied in Iowa for years. Leaving aside that there are only 21,000 Iowa college students from out of state, of which only half are likely to be interested in politics, a quarter will be Democrats, and of those Democrats 40-50% vote for Obama. That adds up to a grand total of 2-3,000 votes. Let's get this straight. If and when Barack Obama wins the Iowa caucus, it will not be due solely to his outstanding support among students, or because of his funny name, it will because he has been hard at work for months building a grassroots organization that took down the most prominent family in Democratic Party politics. It will be because Iowan voters, when they came right down to it, weren't looking for a return to the timidity of our politics in the 1990's. They weren't looking to return to office the Washington establishment that embraced the rush to war. It will be because a skinny young black guy from the south side of Chicago with a funny name will have out-organized, out-raised, out-fought, and out-hussled one of the most powerful political dynasties our party has seen in modern times. That's why we're going to win Iowa. |
