Democratic candidate Barack Obama is warning Iowa audiences it’s a "gamble" for the country to elect a president who’s been a part of Washington politics. According to Obama, the "stakes" are too high to select a leader who’s been a government insider.
"I chose to run because I believe the size of these challenges have outgrown the capacity of a broken and divided politics to solve them," Obama said earlier today in Coralville. "I believe that Americans of every political stripe are hungry, they’re desperate for a new kind of politics."
Obama, like the other candidates traveling the state these days, has polished-up his standard campaign speech to make a closing pitch to Iowa voters. The three leading Democrats in Iowa — Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards — seem to be presenting newly-distilled messages focused on the single themes of change and experience.
By the end of the day, nine presidential candidates will have made public appearances in Iowa.