Le Nouvel Observateur, France

Last Moments of the Campaign before the Iowa Caucuses

The first caucuses, used to nominate the candidate of each party will be held Thursday in Iowa. 

December 29, 2007

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After several months of campaigning, all of the contenders for the White House on Saturday, December 29 entered the final straight of their respective campaigns before the litmus test on Thursday in Iowa.

They have been reaching out to their constituents and trying to tip the balance in a race that promises to be already very tight. In the Democratic camp is the Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton, the senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, and the former Senator from North Carolina, John Edwards, who is close behind.  On the Republican side, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee seems to have gained a slight advantage, but his rivals, including Mitt Romney and John McCain, are hoping to catch up with and create their own surprise.

Five days from the first caucus (assembly of voters) that serve to nominate candidates of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, the contenders for the White House went into high gear.  The small screens of Iowa are inundated with political advertisements.

Pakistan inserts itself into the campaign

The death of Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister of Pakistan, has arisen in debates on foreign policy and national security.

Hillary Clinton has positioned herself as a head of state by calling for an international investigation to shed light on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Her main rival, Barack Obama, also tried to take a stand and denounced the billions of dollars of aid given, to no avail according to him, to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf by the American administration. Other Democratic candidates, faring badly in the polls but with solid experience in foreign policy, were able to seize the opportunity of this tragic event to express their differences. Such is the case of Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico and a former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, who has criticized his opponents Democrats for not having called for the departure of Pervez Musharraf. Bill Richardson has called for a freeze on U.S. military aid to Islamabad that is not specifically to fight against terrorism, until the current President of Pakistan resigns.

The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate, Joe Biden recalled his experience of 35 years in this area.  The two favorites in the Republican camp in Iowa, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney have their share of difficulties in concealing their image as relative novices on international issues. Now, one can only wonder whether this will matter to the voters of Iowa.

First caucus in Iowa

Iowa, composed mostly of white voters and rural areas, is very unrepresentative of the rest of the United States. In this state in the center of the United States, corn is king and in the electoral meetings, old farmers, in jeans and caps that boast brands of tractor, are especially worried about threats to agricultural subsidies. It is for this reason that Conservative voters, mostly Republican, have enabled Mike Huckabee to make a breakthrough. Virtually unknown up to one month ago, Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, insists mainly at his meetings on its fundamental opposition to the right to abortion or to marriage between homosexual couples. A victory in Iowa would, according to Mike Huckabee, be "a political earthquake of great magnitude."

However, being victorious in Iowa is not the same as winning the White House.