Obama Takes the Lead in Iowa

Senators Clinton and Obama debated the validity of each other’s respective plans to revise the American healthcare system. Obama asserts that Hillary’s program forces citizens who cannot afford the extra expenditure of healthcare coverage to buy it and there would probably be an additional fee for non-compliance. As part of his plan, he claims that leaving the decision to mandate healthcare or not to individual states would save Americans up to $2500. While Obama accused Hillary of “being too secretive,” she claims “he leaves 15million people uncovered…it’s a plan crafted for politics, not people.” The Illinois Senator and the New York Senator both face a challenge in Iowa because the primary election takes a caucus form; according to polls conducted in Iowa 43% of Obama’s supporters have never attending the time-consuming caucuses and 50% of Clinton supporters have never attended a caucus—with such a tight race, Obama must hope that the majority of his supporters actually participate in January 3 caucus. Once again the experience debate flared up between the two major democratic contenders, with Obama questioning how “Senator Clinton is claiming basically the entire eight years of the Clinton presidency as her own, except for the stuff that didn't work out, in which case she says she has nothing to do with it.” Favoring Obama’s campaign, a national poll conducted no longer has Hillary able to beat the major Republican candidates because of the feud and possible split of votes with Obama. In a poll of 750 African Americans this week, Obama had a 8% lower approval rating than Senator Clinton. Some analysts suggest that the polled African Americans may be worried about Obama’s chance of success in a national election based on the limited victories of other African American candidates. In response to the re-claim that Obama lack’s enough foreign affairs experience to serve as President, the senator released two elaborations on his plans for Iran and Iraq. To him, it would be a priority to have the troops out of Iraq by March 2008 and he would use diplomacy to give Iran “a clear choice: stop their disturbing behavior and there will be political and economic incentives; continue doing what they're doing, and we will ratchet up the pressure.” Obama’s campaign staff publicized that Linda Nelson, the President of the Iowa State Education Association, planned to vocalize her support for Obama via a conference call set for last Tuesday coupled with the release of a new commercial scheduled to air in Iowa about Obama’s stance on the importance of education. One of the largest endorsements Obama has received is Oprah’s new “Kill Bill-And-Hill” campaign when she announced her intentions to support Obama on her nationally aired show.
On Friday morning, Bloomberg met with Obama for breakfast and the two allegedly discussed how “there is too much game-playing in Washington and not enough problem-solving [with regard to the] economy, education and homeland security.” It seems that as the race continues, the opinion polls continue show Obama gaining on Hillary's initially large lead. Sunday's poll from the Demoines Register in Iowa projected Obama as the number one Democratic Candidate running for the nomination with 28% and 3% ahead of Senator Clinton.