People in Iowa are Responding to Edwards - Campaign Ultra-Prepared For Caucuses LINK

[Blackhatjack]

It is true that if you look at what a Candidate's Campaign DOES as opposed to what they SAY, you will discern the truth of the motives for both. The 'secret' the MSM is hiding and the Hillary and Obama Campaigns dare not address publicly is that Edwards' Campaign in Iowa is much better organized and effective than their own.

Look at what the Edwards' Campaign is doing, and what they are saying, and you realize they have a strategy which they planned years ago and are faithfully executing in Iowa. Now that Obama and Hillary have spent 8-10 times the $$ of the Edwards Campaign and the 'ceiling' has been hit by the running of their tv/media ads, they are mining endorsements from outside the state of Iowa, and still they cannot best the Edwards Campaign.

This NY Times Editorial does a good job of summing up the state of affairs in Iowa. Will the MSM abandon its attempt to make Iowa into a Hillary v. Obama race by ignoring Edwards? Answer: Only at their own peril....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/us/politics/19edwards.html?ref=politics

It’s Edwards the Fighter in the Iowa Homestretch

"Mr. Edwards, a North Carolina Democrat, almost won the Iowa caucuses in 2004 by introducing, in the final weeks of the contest, a closing argument that drew huge crowds and, polls suggest, rallied supporters to his corner right up until the night of the vote. Now, Mr. Edwards, a former trial lawyer, is offering yet another closing argument to his jury of voters here. And there is evidence — from the size of his crowds to the decision by an opponent, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, to challenge him more directly in the past few days — that it may be working."

<snip>

"Joe Trippi, a senior adviser to Mr. Edwards, said the campaign was confident that a victory in Iowa would bring him enough in contributions to carry him through the nomination. “We have a plan to execute this,” Mr. Trippi said. “Nobody understands that.” “A lot of things have to go right for this to go through,” he said. “But so far, it’s gone the way we planned for.”

Mr. Edwards’s strength here is also a function of the political operation he has built over five years. Mr. Edwards’s aides said he had not one but two precinct captains in 90 of the 99 precincts. They have been going through caucus drills to master the tactic that worked so well for Mr. Edwards in 2004: to quickly recruit caucusgoers who, on the first ballot, supported a rival candidate who gets less than 15 percent of the vote, and is thus eliminated from the competition.

And he is arguing that he is far more electable than Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton, an argument that, like his economic populist pitch, has resonated in the past with Democrats in this state. But more than anything, Mr. Edwards’s success in these final days appears to rest on the resonance of this fighting-words appeal with which he has now identified his candidacy."

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[mmonk]

1. Yep.

It's what I've pointed out here on occasion. I still think it's going to work. Also, right now, the campaign is pushing for volunteers to New Hampshire and South Carolina to follow up the possible momentum and thousands have already signed up. This will create a roll effect.

[demnan]

2. Every person working in politics should take note

and use this as a lesson. Edwards campaign planned 5 years out to get a precinct captain in 90% of the precincts in Iowa. All of us working for candidates this year should take note of this. Now is the time to organize for 2012. A Republican will likely win and be a disasterous President for the next 4 years. Within that time frame we should be organizing every precinct in the country for the most likely Democratic candidate (whoever that may be).

[mmonk]

3. I don't know if I'll still be here if a Republican wins this time.