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The Iowa Caucuses
EURSOC's US correspondent Chris Timmers has the latest from the US Presidential Election build-up.
Well, well. Isn't it amazing that the more things change the more they...well, change.
Former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee is surging to the top in Republican polls in the Iowa caucuses. His new found support is laid to his connection to religious Americans, especially conservative Christians. In the Iowa Caucus, scheduled for early Jan 08, Mike Huckabee has leapt ahead of Mitt Romney by a greater than 2 to 1 margin of 39 to 17 percent approval rating. Simultaneously, Barak Obama has moved ahead of Hillary Clinton by a 35 to 29 voter approval in the same caucus. What's going on here?
No one can tell for certain. In the case of the Republicans it could be that Romney's Mormon faith has begun to drag him down, although many pundits claim that his Thursday (6 December) speech on his faith will help him recover.
On the Democratic side, persistent reports that Hillary Clinton is simply not an attractive candidate are starting to hurt her. In addition, the support for Obama's campaign by television talk show host Oprah Winfrey, cannot do anything but help young Barak. Indeed, Winfrey is scheduled to appear at an Obama rally here in Columbia, SC this Sunday. The venue had to be moved from the 18,000 seat Carolina Coliseum to the 80,000+ stadium at Williams Brice (where the University of South Carlina plays its home football games) to accomodate the overflow of supporters.
Two months ago, or even one month ago, who would have predicted these major sea changes in support? But such is American politics. Stay tuned for more developments.
