With the Iowa caucuses being held tomorrow and the New Hampshire Primary five days later the race for the Democratic nomination is definitely heating up. A recent poll in Iowa shows Obama pulling ahead of Clinton by quite a large margin. In fact, the Des Moines Register has Obama with 32%, Clinton with 25%, and Edwards with 24%. It should be noted, however, that a full 1/3 of those participating could change their minds. That seems to be an indication that we finally have a crop of democratic nominees with actual mettle.

Campaigning is reaching a fever pitch in most camps and the voter turnout expectation is growing. 130,000 Democratic voters are expected and 80,000 Republicans. Candidates have been mostly positive in their recent efforts at attracting voters, at least on the Democratic side. Republicans Romney and Huckabee are still going at it with Huckabee maintaining that he is not going to fire back at Romney’s critical ads, and then previewing a commercial in which he does just that. (He did tell reporters the commercial would not air in Iowa.)

Democratic voters have reported receiving phone calls from “pollsters” in which certain candidates were painted in a not so nice light. Hillary would cost the Democrats the election in November if she won the nom, Edwards plan for Iraq would be disastrous, and Obama would deny health insurance to millions of Americans. There were even calls reminding voters of the very important Orange Bowl that was airing on Thursday. So far no one has claimed responsibility for these calls.

My favorite candidate, Kucinich, has urged his supporters to throw their votes toward Obama if he does not meet the cutoff point for voting in the caucuses. The reason behind the support of Obama? His message of change. Obama has shown an amazing ability to garner new supporters from groups that traditionally do not have a high voter turnout. He is a charismatic speaker but his idealism and naivety make him hard for me to support.

William is an ardent supporter of Clinton, and there are times that I agree with him. She has come out strong in the past few days pounding her message home that she alone has the experience needed to start off right as President, she would move decisively on the issues that matter most to Americans, such as her incredibly good health care plan, and she really does come across as a nominee who really cares. To combat this, Obama had a former Clinton supporter introduce him at an event, stating that the “positive” tone of Obama’s campaign is what drew him in.

Personally, I haven’t found Obama’s campaign to be positive overall. In almost every debate and speaking engagement there is a point in which it feels that he is campaigning solely around the fact that he has always been against the Iraq War and Hillary wasn’t. Now, I find it refreshing that there are candidates who have always had better sense than to support this illegal war, however; being against something in the beginning and having a good plan to end it now are two very different things. I have not always agreed with the way that Clinton has handled the fact that she did vote for military action in Iraq, I felt strongly that she should have apologized. I also stopped supporting her when she voted for the Kyl/Lieberman amendment.

Every time something bad happens in the Middle East (which is quite a bit it seems) Obama finds a way to blame it on Hillary’s vote for force. It is very important to keep in mind the context in which Congress voted for the use of force in Iraq. It was at a time when the majority of their constituents supported the proposal, America was grieving, the president was enjoying high approval ratings, and not many people thought that our administration would outright lie to us. The job of a Senator is to represent their constituency, something that she did to the best of her ability at the time and a majority of Congress did as well.

I feel strongly that Obama would be best served by showing us that he in fact has the experience, diplomacy, and fortitude to be our next president. I am not convinced that he has any of those things at this point and I am not one who is convinced merely by rhetoric.

So how is Edwards dealing with his third place position? By a drastic new plan to end the US occupation of Iraq of course! In an interview yesterday Edwards called for the withdrawal of almost all US troops, including those training the Iraqi military and police, within 10 months. This has been a topic in which Edwards’ view has evolved over time, much like the rest of America. He also voted for the use of force, later apologized for it, recommended a gradual reduction of troops over time, and now, citing the failure of the Iraqi government over the last four years, wants to pull virtually every US troops. He would make allowances for 3,500-5,000 troops to protect the US Embassy and possibly some humanitarian workers. (( Edwards Calls For Pullout of Troops Training Iraqis ~ MSN ))

Democrats Joseph Biden and Chris Dodd have already mentioned dropping out of the race if they do not garner enough support in Iowa, which would narrow this bitterly contested playing field in time for the New Hampshire Primary.

I am excited to see that the political process is generating so much enthusiasm and involvement this time around. There isn’t a single Democratic candidate that I believe could not be a good President. I do support Kucinich above them all but I could feel comfortable voting for any of them in the November election. Stay tuned for our continued coverage of the Iowa caucuses and the ongoing election process and let us know your thoughts.

~ Summer ~ WWJV4.com