Candidates hone message and hunt voters in Iowa

By Deborah Charles

PERRY, Iowa (Reuters) - White House hopefuls honed their closing messages and targeted undecided voters in Iowa on Monday, three days before the state opens the presidential nominating battle in a too-close-to-call race.

Candidates rolled across the snowy back roads of Iowa to drum up support, while campaigns prepared to unleash a mammoth effort to find voters and get them to participate in the state's caucuses on Thursday.

"If you will stand with me on January 3 and caucus with me, we can change the world," Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, locked in a three-way tussle among Democrats with Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, told a crowd in Perry in central Iowa.

Polls show Iowa races in both parties are too close to call.

A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll gave New York Sen. Clinton, a former first lady who would be the first woman U.S. president, a four-point lead among Democrats over Obama and former North Carolina Sen. Edwards, who were tied for second.

Among Republicans, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee narrowly led former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by two points.

Iowa kicks off the state-by-state battle to choose candidates in the November presidential election. The Democratic caucuses -- in which people gather in groups in locations around the state to show support for their choices -- begin at 6:30 p.m. CST/0030 GMT and the Republicans start 30 minutes later. Results will begin appearing within a few hours.

All of the top Democrats argued that they would be the most electable in the November 2008 election, while Republicans Huckabee and Romney battled over their records as governor.

"If we're serious about winning this election we cannot live in fear of losing it. We've got to think big to be bold," Obama said in Perry.

Polls showed many Iowans in both parties were undecided or open to changing their minds. A Democratic caucus rule allowing supporters of candidates who fail to gather 15 percent of support in a given precinct to switch to another candidate increased the uncertainty.

'FLUID RACE'

"There is a remarkable amount of fluidity in this race right now and a lot of undecideds," David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, told reporters.

He said all signs pointed to a large Democratic turnout on Thursday, which could be good for Obama and his effort to attract first-time caucus-goers. The record Democratic turnout in 2004 was just more than 120,000.

"We think as turnout increases we have a much better opportunity to profit," Plouffe said.

Republican Romney has spent the last few days airing ads attacking his chief rivals -- Huckabee in Iowa and Arizona Sen. John McCain in New Hampshire, which votes five days after Iowa.