January 04, 2008	Friday	Zilhaj 24, 1428

DES MOINES, (Iowa), Jan 3: White House hopefuls launched a final blitz on Thursday to mobilise support in the too-close-to-call Iowa caucuses, the first electoral showdown of the longest, most gruelling US presidential race in history.

Awash in hundreds of millions of campaign dollars and historic potential, the 2008 race opened in this frigid midwestern state with a three-way clash between Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.

Most polls indicated a dead heat although a survey released on Thursday by the Zogby organisation showed Obama with a 31-27 per cent lead over Edwards and Clinton falling to third at 24 per cent.

All of the campaigns worked full-bore to encourage supporters to brave the bitter Iowa cold on Thursday evening and take part in the caucus process that usually draws barely 200,000 of the state’s three million people.

And all candidates indulged in the usual political gymnastics of claiming electoral momentum, while playing down the consequences of defeat and warning that Iowa was just the first milepost in a long process.

“We feel good about what we’ve done. But this is the beginning and not the end,” Obama, the freshman senator vying to become the country’s first black president, told ABC television.

Edwards, who has been playing catch-up for much of the campaign, expressed confidence after a last-ditch 36-hour Iowa blitz. “I think my people will be there,” he told MSNBC television. “I think they’re motivated.” Clinton, the senator and former first lady seeking to become the first woman US president, acknowledged the Iowa outcome hinged on which candidate made the best effort to get out their vote.

The Iowa caucuses are only the first of the nomination face offs and will be followed on Tuesday by the New Hampshire primaries, then a series of other contests leading to Feb 5 when more than 20 states vote.

On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee, riding a surge in the polls, was locked in a tight race with Mitt Romney for the top of their party’s ticket out of Iowa, with comeback sensation John McCain looking to snap up third to boost his standing in New Hampshire.

The Zogby poll gave Huckabee, a Baptist preacher and former governor of Arkansas, a 31-25 per cent edge over Romney, former governor of Massachusetts.

Huckabee flew to California to appear on Wednesday on the popular Jay Leno talk show, displaying his guitar-playing prowess and folksy nature in shrugging off mounting attacks by critics.

“Oh, it’s politics. I tell people that if you can’t stand the sight of your own blood, don’t run for anything. Just buy a ticket and watch from the stands, because this is a blood sport, no doubt about it,” he said.

Romney, who has been ambushed by Huckabee’s surge in Iowa and McCain’s rise in New Hampshire, denied on Thursday that his White House hopes were on the downturn.

“Hey it couldn’t be better, are you kidding me?” he told ABC. “I started off as an unknown. And here I am, the only guy who is in contention for the top spot in both states.” McCain meanwhile moved into the lead in the Pew Research Centre’s nationwide survey of the Republican race with 22 per cent support, two per cent ahead of long time pace-setter Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor.

The Iowa caucuses, public meetings of about 200,000 activists, have a history of nurturing or crushing White House dreams, thinning the fields for the flurry of nominating clashes to come.

Candidates, some of whom have spent more than a year courting Iowa voters, sprinted to the finish by holding marathon strings of public rallies and airing television advertisements.

In her closing ad, Clinton pledged to lead America in the opposite direction to that chosen by President George Bush.

“After seven long years of this administration, we finally have the opportunity for a new beginning,” she said.

The Democratic race may hinge on whether Obama can get the legions of fickle young and first-time caucus goers who flock to his campaign events to show up on Thursday.

Clinton, though also targeting first-time caucus goers, holds events packed with older, and female, voters — a demographic more likely to caucus in large numbers. Edwards still hoped to surge between the two rivals to victory.—AFP