caucus2004

Iowa’s Democrats have shaken up the race for their party’s presidential nomination.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry’s campaign was in the doldrums for much of 2003, but Caucus Night 2004 ended with Kerry topping the charts, and he thanked Iowans for helping hm become the “come back Kerry.” Kerry said the New England Patriots won on Sunday, and on Monday, “this New Englander won and you’ve sent me on the way to the Super Bowl.” Kerry said “not so long ago” his campaign was written off, but Iowans listened, “stood the ground” and on Caucus Night stood with him so he could “take on George Bush.” Kerry asked an unknown woman he met in a barn — an Iowan who handed him a four-leaf clover — to call his campaign office so he could thank her, as Kerry said “this worked.”AUDIO

North Carolina Senator John Edwards finished in a strong second. Edwards said he started his Iowa campaign a year ago with the belief that “the politics of hope could overcome the politics of cynacism.” He said the people of Iowa, by voting for him, “confirmed that they believe in a positive, uplifting vision to change America.”AUDIO

Former front-runner Howard Dean, the former Governor of Vermont, left Iowa with a distant third place finish, but his speech last night was anything but a concession, with Dean at one point screaming “yeah” and sounding a bit like he was driving cattle to New Hampshire rather than a newly-challenged campaign. Dean said two years ago, no one would have predicted he’d finish third. “I would have liked to come in first tonight, and so would you,” Dean told supporters. “But you know what, I want to thank the people of Iowa…this is a wonderful, wonderful state with wonderful, wonderful people,” Dean said. AUDIO

Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt’s fourth place finish in the Caucuses finished his campaign. Gephardt said “this didn’t come out the way we wanted” but he said he’d been through tougher fights in his life. Gephardt told supporters when he watched his two-year-old son fight terminal cancer, it put everything “into perspective.” Gephardt told supporters that “life will go on” because his campaign was about the future and “the America ahead of us.” Ahead for Gephardt is a formal announcement at one o’clock today in St. Louis that he’s ending his campaign. AUDIO

Here’s how the delegate tally stacked up: Kerry finished last night with 38 percent; Edwards followed with 32 percent. Dean was back in third with 18 percent and Gephardt in fourth with 11 percent.

The closing moments of the 2004 Iowa Caucus campaign included rancor, rallies and a reunion of war buddies. Just hours remain in this race that seems to be going down to the wire, and the campaigns pulled out all the stops this weekend. Last night, Howard Dean’s wife, Judith Steinberg Dean, made her first appearance in the state, speaking at rallies in eastern Iowa. Dr. Dean said she hadn’t been with her husband as much as she’d like because she has a son in high school, a daughter in college and a medical practice with “patients that depend on me daily.” Dr. Dean, who still makes house calls on occasion, thanked Iowans for opening up their homes to her husband. The other Dr. Dean — the candidate — took some swipes at his competitors, reminding supporters that he began stating his opposition to the war in Iraq last spring. Dean said he “is so proud that other than Dennis Kucinich” he was the “only one running for president who stood up against the war in Iraq, not now but then.” One-quarter of Dean’s donors are under 30 years old, and Dean’s counting on legions of younger Iowans to Caucus for him tonight. For most, it will be their first Caucus. Dean said “now is the time to see if this enormous movement and outpouring of support from all over this country translates into votes.” Dean told his supporters they now have the chance to “prove it, or not.” On Saturday, Massachusetts Senator and Vietnam vet John Kerry was reunited with a man he saved 30 years ago in Vietnam. Retired cop James Rassman, a Republican, was a Green Beret back in 1969, when he was thrown into a river by an explosion on Kerry’s boat — an explosion that injured Kerry’s arm. He recounted his rescue Saturday at an event in Des Moines. Rassman says he grabbed onto a cargo net dangling on the front of Kerry’s boat, and Kerry came forward — under fire — and pulled Rassman on board. Rassman told Kerry he owed him his life and Kerry had his vote. Kerry said he was “overwhelmed” to hear Rassman’s story. Kerry downplayed his role in the rescue, saying “anybody would have done” what he did. “It really isn’t a big deal,” Kerry said. One of the big deal’s this wekeend was the Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll, which showed Kerry had pulled out into first place by last Friday. Kerry said his campaign is moving because of the independence of Iowans who listen and try to find the person they can trust. North Carolina Senator John Edwards was second in the Register’s poll; Dean was third and Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt fourth. Gephardt downplayed all the polls. Gephardt told supporters the Iowa Caucuses are an unusual event, and it’s hard to get an accurate poll because you don’t know who’s coming out. Gephardt says there’s “never in the history of the Iowa Caucus” been a voter turn-out effort like the one his campaign has set up, with the help of 21 international unions, including the Teamsters. Gephardt said in 1988, when he won the Caucuses, his campaign “didn’t hold a candle” to his organization this time around. If Gephardt doesn’t win tonight, after he had declared he would win, it could be the end of his political career, and his wife, Jane’s chin wobbled as Gephardt closed one rally yesterday with these words. Gephardt told his supporters he doesn’t “care about bein’ president…need the job…or need the title.” Gephardt said “America needs a leader who comes from the life experience” he’s had. Edwards, who vaulted from single digits weeks ago to second place in the Register’s poll, was perhaps the most boyant of the candidates, kicking off the closing weekend with a pep talk for his troops. Edwards said there was “so much energy and excitement and momentum” behind his campaign because it’s a campaign not based on cynacism but hope. That’s the theme Edwards repeated in stop after stop this weekend, to packed rooms where backers spilled into the corridors. Edwards said it is time “to make Americans proud to be Americans again, to make them believe in what is possible.” Long-shot candidate Dennis Kucinich made a flurry of appearances throughout the state, too, and took out huge ads in Sunday newspapers.