• INTERACTIVE: County-by-county breakdown of the results
• Romney, Santorum in Iowa photo finish
• Late, late, late deciders flock to Santorum
• Romney’s watchwords in Iowa: Divide and conquer
• Iowa deadlock could change race in New Hampshire
• Santorum ‘committed’ to competing in N.H., S.C.
• Ron Paul benefits from Democrat crossovers
President Obama reached out to his Iowa supporters Tuesday night, grabbing a turn in the political spotlight as voters headed to the first-in-the-nation caucuses in a state that catapulted Obama to the presidential nomination four years ago but where he is now vulnerable.
In a live video feed to Iowa from the Capital Hilton, just blocks from the White House, Obama picked the night Hawkeye State voters were choosing his Republican opponent to assure Democrats that he has achieved results and kept his promises over the last three years, from health care reforms to ending the Iraq war.
“In some ways, I’m actually more optimistic now than when I first ran,” Obama said. “We’ve already seen change take place. 2012 is about reminding the American people how far we’ve traveled.”
Beyond reminding voters of his accomplishments, Obama is also portraying Republicans as beholden to the wealthy and to special interests in hopes of swaying independent voters back to his own camp.
“It’s going to be a big battle, though,” he told Iowans. “I hope you guys are geared up. I’m excited.”
In Iowa, however, Republican presidential contenders have been traveling for weeks, accusing Obama of not living up to his rhetoric.
Obama in 2008 routed the perceived front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, in Iowa, propelling himself into New Hampshire and beyond. Now, polls show Obama in a virtual tossup in Iowa with several Republican contenders.
“He’s in trouble in Iowa just as he is in many places,” said David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, noting that Obama can no longer lay claim to being the “insurgent” candidate he was four years ago. “They’re working really hard to organize in this state, but [Obama] has just taken a pounding in the media here.”
Despite the White House’s insistence that Obama is not yet in full campaign mode, his re-election team has deployed to a handful of battleground states, including Iowa. According to campaign aides, they have already set up eight offices in the Hawkeye State, seeking to expand their record-setting mobilization effort from four years ago.
Meanwhile, Obama is ratcheting up his campaign rhetoric following a 10-day vacation in Hawaii and a year defined by squabbling between the White House and Congress that stalled negotiations over a variety of urgent issues, including reducing a historic budget deficit, raising the nation’s borrowing limit and extending tax cuts for most Americans.
Some Democrats worry that Obama’s standing with voters has dropped in early-voting states in which Republican candidates have been running campaign attack ads. Yet, campaign aides said Tuesday that Obama would wait until the dust settled in Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida before launching an extensive attack on the eventual Republican nominee.
On Wednesday, Obama will travel to another battleground state, Ohio, where he plans to give an economic speech in hard-hit Cleveland.
