Electability key among Iowa Democrats
When shopping for a presidential candidate, Iowa Democrats seek electability.
JEFFERSON, Iowa -- Ask Democrat Ann Cunningham what she's shopping for in a presidential candidate and she replies, "I want a winner, first and foremost." She's still mulling which Democrat is most likely to deliver the White House.
Iowa Democrats displayed a practical bent in their leadoff nomination contest four years ago. Many were upset about the war in Iraq. But in the end they abandoned Howard Dean, the anti-war former governor, in favor of Sen. John Kerry, a Vietnam combat veteran who had voted to authorize the war.
Nearly half the Iowa Democrats in a recent New York Times/CBS News poll — and nearly seven in 10 New Hampshire Democrats — said New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is the party's most electable candidate.
With crunch time approaching, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, former senator John Edwards and their backers are making increasingly strong arguments that they are better bets to win.
"They are planting that seed," says Donna Hoffman, a political scientist at the University of Northern Iowa. "The more they talk about it, the more people are going to think about it" in the days before the Jan. 3 caucuses.
She says the strategy also allows them to remind voters of Clinton's high negative ratings in polls: "They think they can score some points off that."
Among Republicans, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and his supporters say he's most electable because he puts states such as California in play.
Arizona Sen. John McCain counters that he's best positioned to win states such as Ohio, Washington, Kentucky and Virginia. "John McCain is cementing his position as the best candidate to defeat Hillary Clinton," campaign manager Rick Davis said Thursday.
Clinton is reinforcing her own viability case by collecting endorsements from prominent Democratic moderates and swing-state officials.
"I am especially proud to have the support of so many Democratic leaders from the so-called red states," Clinton told cheering Democrats at an Iowa party dinner this month.
