Republican tells us why Obama should win...

Heard the best reason this morning why Americans should vote Obama for President - from a hard-line conservative.

Iowa Republican Steve King was ranting on Radio 4's Today programme why he would never vote for the economic rescue package currently before politicians on Capitol Hill, suggesting that it would bring socialism to America through the back door.

Bizarre enough. But then he switched his fire to blast Barack Obama again - King hit the headlines earlier this year by disgracefully claiming that radical Islamists would declare victory in the war on terror and dance in the streets if Obama was elected to the White House...

This time it was Obama's brand of socialism for health care that was in King's sights...

King had this warning:

"He (Obama) wants everyone in America to have a health insurance plan..."

Bring it on Barack!

Is Obama the new JFK...?

Barack Obama has created such incredible momentum in the US presidential race in Iowa that if he wins big in New Hampshire, the second state to choose it's candidate, he'll no doubt be hailed as the new John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Are we really witnessing a historic moment not seen since Kennedy in the 1960s...? Is it premature to say Obama has launched a new movement that will change American politics...?

Maybe. Just maybe...

Plenty of early sensations in previous races for the White House burned out and disappeared back into obscurity. And this race has only just begun: the intense tests in the big states when the campaign will inevitably get nastier are still a long way off.

But I've just u-tubed Obama's victory speech in Iowa and watched it in full. Then again. It is certainly electric - and definitely JFK, maybe with a bit of Martin Luther King for good measure... (sorry, for some reason I had to upload the utube in a separate post, but do have a look...)

JFK or not, The Obama moment that took Iowa by storm already seems to be spreading to the next battleground of New Hampshire.

The influential Daily Kos blog reveals a massive surge for Senator Barack Obama in New Hampshire since Thursday.

Just a few days ago, former first lady Hillary Clinton was at least six points ahead in New Hampshire and most likely Democrat runner for the White House in November.

But in an astonishing turnround, two polls taken in the hours since Iowa give Obama a double-digit lead over Clinton in New Hampshire.

And Fox News says the Hillary Clinton operation has already run aground in New Hampshire.

A CNN poll published tonight by the Boston Herald says it's a dead heat.

Obama is on fire.

His Iowa victory speech may indeed be a moment in history...

Certainly, if he beats Hillary in New Hampshire by double-digits, she surely couldn't become the comeback kid that husband Bill proved to be in 1992...or could she?

Only time will tell.

Guess who came 3rd in Iowa in 1992...?

OK, maybe I was over-hasty writing off Hillary Clinton's chances if she hit the buffers in Iowa. True, she has suffered a massive setback coming third among Democrat presidential contenders in Iowa...

But while the good Democrats of the tiny state have given a huge boost to the chances of Senator Barack Obama becoming the first Black President, historically, they haven't always backed the eventual winner.

In 1992, according to the Des Moines Register, Iowa Democrats caucused 3-1 in favour of Tom Harkin.

Er, Tom who, I hear you ask.

In third place that year - with a derisory three-per-cent support - was an ambitious young man who went on not only to defeat Harkin later, but to reach the White House less than a year later, and make Hillary Clinton America's First Lady.

Hillary may have been mauled in Iowa after starting the race runaway favourite, but now she knows she's in a real marathon contest with Barack Obama.

So while Senator Obama is the first Black politician ever to win the first state to caucus in the arcane process, Hillary will survive Iowa.

Watch her come out fighting in New Hampshire next Tuesday...

If Hillary is third in Iowa, can her campaign survive...?

In the early hours of Friday morning, we may have a better idea of who will be the next President of the most powerful nation in the world...

For months, the 'smart' money has been on Senator Hillary Clinton of New York returning to the White House in a Democratic landslide to become the real First Lady.

Just a few weeks ago, Hillary seemed unstoppable in her quest to become first female President of the United States.

My heart was with the younger Barack Obama to become the first Black President, though my head said it had to be Hillary.

But now the final poll before voters in the small state of Iowa make their choice of candidates, Hillary's campaign seems to have nose-dived, with Barack Obama now tipped as firm favourite.

Former Presidential running-mate John Edwards has also made a late surge in Iowa and the poll puts Hillary in third place in the Iowa caucus.

Hillary is way ahead in the polls for the next caucus-stop in New Hampshire in a few days, but if she's pushed into third place tonight, as this poll predicts, her campaign may not recover.

Republican supporters in Iowa also choose their favoured candidate tonight, but the Grand Old Party of George Dubya Bush appears to be in free-fall.

Little-known Mike Huckabee - former Arkansas governor - is the surprise Republican front-runner among a bunch of no-hopers. If he wins in Iowa, he'll come under intense pressure and may face his own nose-dive back into insignificance.

The most telling figures in the Republican caucus may well be the turn-out. Large numbers of die-hards refusing to engage with the arcane process will indicate how hacked off right-wingers are with the current state of the GOP and George Dubya's leadership.

I don't pretend to understand why a few thousand voters in Iowa seem to have the ability to make history...personally I think we Brits should have as much say as the good people of Iowa in who occupies the most powerful office in the world!

UPDATE: BBC calls the Republican race for Huckabee, with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in second place.

UPDATE 2: Democrat race called for Obama but no news yet on whether Hillary managed to hold second place.