Closing Arguments: Candidates Make Final Pitch

Dec. 31, 2007 — -- Though presidential hopefuls have been campaigning for months, the race to the 2008 presidential election officially begins with the Iowa caucuses, which are only three days away.

While many potential ballot casters are preparing to usher in the new year, the candidates are putting up their last-ditch efforts to woo Hawkeye State residents.

"I think every candidate who wants to be president is desperately doing what ever they can to get that final margin in a race that can be decided by 200 votes," said ABC News political contributor Matthew Dowd on "Good Morning America" today.

A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has former first lady Hillary Clinton leading her Democratic rivals with 29 percent. But she can hardly be considered a sure thing, as Sen. Barack Obama and John Edwards have 26 percent and 25 percent, respectively.

The tight race has Obama and Edwards fighting to retain and gain some of the undecided voters in Iowa, and Obama argues this is the time to hope.

"I think Barack Obama needs to win Iowa. He has to show Hillary is vulnerable," Dowd said.

Clinton, who visited nine towns across the state during the weekend, repeated the same message at each stop: It takes experience to make a change, and she's the candidate who can win.

"A lot of people are deciding what is the most important issue of all; who can be the president; who is ready on day one. I have taken the incoming fire for about 26 years, and much to their dismay I'm still standing," Clinton told supporters.

Dowd said former President Clinton has given the New York senator a boost on the campaign trail.

"I think her husband being president has provided her a great asset to a degree," he said. "In the end, people are going to vote on whether Hillary Clinton can be president or not."

Other Democratic candidates, like New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, have received much less press during the lead-up to the caucuses.

"You know, if you listen to national media, the pundits in New York, there are only two or three candidates, but we are going to show them. We are going to shock the world," Richardson said.

Richardson had his biggest rally ever during the weekend at a Des Moines restaurant, while Sen. Joe Biden discussed murmurs that he would be a good secretary of state, asking Iowans if they were ready to vote for someone who wanted more than that.

In Edwards' final appeal to voters, he pressed the issue of fighting special interests, saying the Democratic nominee should have guts and determination.

The Republicans

While the top three Democrats remain within striking distance of one another, the Republicans find two former governors as the front-runners in Iowa. Polls show Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney running neck-in-neck in Iowa, as Romney's last-minute attack ads have seemed to chip away at Huckabee's lead.

"I think at this point, Mike Huckabee has to win," Dowd said. Dowd added the attacks have hurt Huckabee in part because until a few weeks ago, voters knew very little about him.

The former Arkansas governor hasn't been content to merely sit back in response to the negative advertisements. Huckabee has released a new ad.

"If you love negative campaigning you've got to be loving the last few days of this election," Huckabee says in the ad. "But if you love our country, you've got to be thinking enough is enough."

Huckabee has pushed honesty as part of his closing arguments and suggested Romney lacks the quality.

"He will likely not start being honest on the job, if he had to be dishonest to get there," Huckabee said.

Despite his attack ads, Romney's closing message to potential caucus goers was one of optimism.

"I'm convinced that what makes us the strongest nation on Earth is the heart and values of the American people," he said.

And while the men duke it out, Fred Thompson has set his expectations high, saying he needs to come in second to stay in the race.

The former Tennessee actor has offered consistent common sense conservatism as his final pitch.

Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain are expected to make no closing arguments at all. The men have set their sights on other states, whose primaries come later in the year. They'll be happy with whatever they can get in Iowa.