{"id":7660,"date":"2006-06-12T10:47:31","date_gmt":"2006-06-12T14:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7660"},"modified":"2006-06-12T10:47:31","modified_gmt":"2006-06-12T14:47:31","slug":"a-wide-open-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/a-wide-open-field\/","title":{"rendered":"A wide-open field"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maybe it’s because I find it easier to deal with Bush’s presidency by looking ahead to its conclusion, but I’m frequently preoccupied with 2008 speculation. With this in mind, this<\/a> is a [tag]poll[\/tag] that has quickly captured the political world’s attention.<\/p>\n

Former U.S. Sen. [tag]John Edwards[\/tag] of North Carolina leads a list of potential Democratic presidential candidates while [tag]Iowa[\/tag] Gov. [tag]Tom Vilsack[\/tag] holds fourth place, trailing Edwards by 20 points in an early test of support among likely Iowa caucus participants.<\/p>\n

A new Iowa Poll conducted for The [tag]Des Moines Register[\/tag] shows that Edwards, the runner-up in the Iowa Democratic caucuses two years ago and a frequent visitor to the state since then, is the choice of 30 percent of Iowans who say they are likely to take part in the January 2008 caucuses.<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. [tag]Hillary Clinton[\/tag] of New York follows on Edwards’ heels with 26 percent in the Iowa Poll. Experts say it’s the first poll showing anyone besides Clinton as the preferred Democrat in the race for the White House.<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. [tag]John Kerry[\/tag] of Massachusetts, who used his victory in the 2004 caucuses as a springboard to the Democratic presidential nomination that year, is a distant third in the [tag]Iowa Poll[\/tag] with 12 percent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Considering that it’s his home state, Vilsack’s presidential bid just suffered a fairly significant setback. If he’s generating 10% support in Iowa after two successful terms as the state’s governor, Vilsack will have a tough time convincing donors that he’s a top-tier candidate, at least in the short term.<\/p>\n

Vilsack aside, polls like this one shake up the conventional wisdom considerably. Edwards has been to Iowa five times this year, and it’s clearly paying off. Hillary Clinton is a party favorite and can generate significant support without multiple appearances (she hasn’t been to Iowa since ’03), but the notion that she, or anyone, can win the nomination in a walk just isn’t realistic.<\/p>\n

Only 18 months until the caucuses….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe it’s because I find it easier to deal with Bush’s presidency by looking ahead to its conclusion, but I’m frequently preoccupied with 2008 speculation. With this in mind, this is a [tag]poll[\/tag] that has quickly captured the political world’s attention. Former U.S. Sen. [tag]John Edwards[\/tag] of North Carolina leads a list of potential Democratic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}