Former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach says Barack Obama’s decisive win in the Iowa Caucuses shouldn’t be under-estimated. Leach is a life-long Republican who lost his bid for re-election to the U.S. House in 2006. Leach, who’s now teaching at Harvard University, says the results in the Democratic race are remarkable.
"In one sense, you have the symbol of the establishment being thumped by the people with a candidate of a very unlikely background and a candidate with a worldwide background, someone of an African father and of a background that is going to tap the emotions of many people in the world," Leach says.
Leach contends history was also made in Iowa last night in terms of the organizations each of the three leading Democratic candidates amassed here. "What you had in Iowa was this year the single most sophisticated politics ever organized in any state in the history of the country on the Democratic side," Leach says.
"On the Republican side you had the most unique church-based politics that has ever come into play." Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, won the support of many Evangelical Christians last night. Leach made his comments today on Iowa Public Radio.