"This feels good. It's just like I imagined it when I was talking to my Kindergarten teacher." As the focus now moves to New Hampshire in four days (here's a good historical overview of the Iowa-to-NH bounce), some interesting facts about Obama's resounding victory in the Iowa Caucus last night:
239,000 Dems caucused last night, shattering the previous attendance record of 124,000 in 2004. (2000 saw 61,000 Dems in attendance.) "Iowa Democrats outnumbered their Republican counterparts by an almost two-to-one margin."
First-timers came out in droves. "First-time caucus goers, who accounted for 57 percent of Democratic participants, favored Obama, 41 percent, over Clinton, 29 percent, or Edwards, 18 percent. Among repeat attenders, Edwards led slightly."
About 93% of the Iowa caucusgoers were white. "Obama...won whites, by a six-point margin, 33-27 percent over Clinton...Obama won blacks in Iowa with 72 percent support, his single best group."
The gender gap seen in early polls did not emerge last night: In fact, "In Iowa, Obama beat Clinton by 35 percent to 30 percent among women. He did better still among men, with 35 percent support, to 24 percent for Edwards and 23 percent for Clinton."
The generational gap, on the other hand, was rather stark. "Among all caucus-goers under age 45, a smashing 50 percent supported Obama, compared with just 17 percent for Edwards and 16 percent for Clinton. Among those under 30, Obama went even higher, to 57 percent. Among seniors, by contrast -- nearly a quarter of participants -- it was Clinton 45 percent, Edwards 22, Obama 18." "'This is as big a generation gap as I've ever seen in politics,' said CNN's Bill Schneider."
"Obama also won by a very sizable margin among independents, about a fifth of caucus goers, with 41 percent support to Edwards' 23 percent and Clinton's 17 percent."
Data suggests that "second-choice voters" actually went for Edwards, meaning Obama won handily with his "first-choice" support.
A big basketball fan, Sen. Obama spent an hour caucus morning playing a pick-up game with friends. It took awhile longer than I'd once hoped, but we may finally get that hoop at the White House...
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