Candidates hone message and hunt voters in Iowa
PERRY, Iowa (Reuters) - White House hopefuls honed their closing messages and traded jabs over their records in Iowa on Monday, three days before the state opens the presidential nominating battle in a too-close-to-call race.
The leading contenders in both parties traded shots as a tight Iowa campaign ticked down to the end. Republican Mike Huckabee said he would not air an advertisement he prepared attacking rival Mitt Romney -- then showed it to reporters.
Democrat Hillary Clinton said she was better suited to tackle special interests in Washington than rival John Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who has made that issue the centerpiece of his campaign.
"It's easy to talk about taking on special interests," the New York senator and former first lady said in Keokuk, Iowa. "I've taken on the oil companies and I intend to keep doing it. It's something you don't have to do by yelling and screaming. Save your energy. Get the job done."
Polls show tight races in both parties in Iowa, which kicks off the state-by-state battle to choose candidates in the November presidential election.
A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll gave Clinton, seeking to be the first woman U.S. president, a four-point lead among Democrats over Edwards and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who were tied for second.
A separate Des Moines Register poll found Obama was the choice of 32 percent of likely Democratic caucusgoers, up from 28 percent in late November, while Clinton held steady at 25 percent and Edwards was virtually unchanged at 24 percent.
The newspaper found 32 percent support for Mike Huckabee among Republicans, followed by Romney with 26 percent.
MOST ELECTABLE IN NOVEMBER
The Democratic caucuses -- in which people gather in locations around the state to publicly declare support for their choices -- begin at 6:30 p.m. CST/0030 GMT on Thursday and Republicans start 30 minutes later. Results begin appearing within a few hours.
All of the top Democrats argued they would be the most electable in the November 2008 election, and targeted undecided voters as they geared up mammoth operations to get out the vote on Thursday.
"If you will stand with me on January 3 and caucus with me, we can change the world," Obama told a crowd in Perry in central Iowa.
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. Continued...
Sister speaks to jailed journalist
