USA Today takes note on Biden's growing chances [View All]

But first (from the article) Hey Obama - leave Biden's supporters alone :)

"Some of you may have decided to support Joe Biden or Chris Dodd or somebody else," Barack Obama told a crowd of about 400 in Mason City. "We still want to be your second choice."

snips -
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-12-27-democrats_N.htm

Who will get the votes of caucusgoers whose candidates are eliminated in the first round of voting? (Democratic candidates generally need 15% of the vote at a precinct caucus to stay in the running.)

The unpredictability of the caucuses means each of the Democrats has a chance to win or at least finish stronger than expected, and all are in Iowa to make their case.


Four years ago, state Rep. Bruce Hunter recalled he was "on the victory bus with Howard Dean trying to figure out how much we would win by." Instead, the former Vermont governor finished third — effectively sinking his campaign — when the legions of enthusiastic young people who had animated his rallies "just didn't show up," Hunter said.

That history is giving hope to supporters of Joseph Biden and John Edwards, who are focusing on Democrats with a track record of attending caucuses, especially union voters and older people. "My guys have pickups. They have to go to work in the ice," said United Steelworkers political director Chuck Rocha, an Edwards backer.

At the Italian-American Cultural Center here, where a mostly middle-age and older crowd of about 300 packed in to hear Biden this week, Iowa's House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the Delaware senator is surging with "the right demographic." The average age of caucusgoers in 2004 was 54, according to Iowa Democratic Party spokeswoman Carrie Giddins.

That means that big crowds and impressive poll numbers — which Obama and Clinton have — don't always translate into victory.

"What happens in the second round is very important," says McCarthy, who is supporting Biden this year. Norm Sterzenbach, political director of the Iowa Democratic Party, agrees. Becoming the consolation prize "could be a key to success on caucus night," he says

Go Joe!!!