By Jim Stanford on January 3, 2008
2008 is off to a great start.
Barack Obama’s victory in Iowa tonight was a “stunning display of strength,” says the New York Times.
The numbers are impressive: Nearly 220,000 Democrats and independents turned out, up from 125,000 in 2004.
By comparison, about 115,000 took part in the Republican caucus, won by Mike Huckabee. As TPM’s Josh Marshall notes, “That is a very big vote in itself.”
An enormous tide of young voters made the difference for Obama, according to one of his senior advisers.
Strategist David Axelrod said Obama’s campaign had an organization “built on the backs of idealistic kids who came in here not just because they believed in Obama, but they wanted to change the course of history and the world.”
At a raucous victory rally, Obama said his triumph showed that in “big cities and small towns, you came together as Democrats, Republicans and independents to say, ‘We are one nation, we are one people, and our time for change has come.’”
Click here to watch a clip of the speech. Goose bumps, anyone?
Wyoming Democrats vote for their preferred presidential candidate on March 8.
Posted under barack obama, democratic party, politics
