US:As Iowans voted overnight candidates made their final pitches, writes Denis Stauntonin Des Moines
Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, many of them hoarse and visibly exhausted, made their final pitches to Iowa voters yesterday in advance of last night's caucuses.
With a new poll predicting victory for him in the Democratic race, Barack Obama, his voice diminished to a whisper, said he was well placed to advance to the states that will hold primaries over the next few weeks.
"Anything is possible at this point, but we know that we've done a terrific job organising in New Hampshire and Nevada and South Carolina. This is the beginning and not the end. Our goal is just to do well tonight," he said.
The Reuters/Zogby poll put Mr Obama four points ahead of John Edwards with Hillary Clinton in third place.
All three leading Democratic candidates bought minutes of airtime during Iowa's main evening television news programmes to make last-minute appeals to voters. Mr Obama and Ms Clinton made statements direct to camera but Mr Edwards featured an Iowa worker who was laid off when a big home appliances manufacturer in the state shut down last October.
Mr Obama has spent almost $9 million on advertising in Iowa, Ms Clinton almost $7 million and Mr Edwards almost $3 million.
At her final rally in Des Moines, Ms Clinton appeared onstage with her husband, former president Bill Clinton, as well as her mother and daughter. Her campaign was privately confident in advance of last night's caucuses but publicly prepared the way for a second or third place finish. "She has done what she needed to do here. When she started the process she was way behind - it's now by all standards a competitive race," former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack said.
Republican Mike Huckabee flew to Los Angeles on Wednesday night to appear on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, crossing a Writers' Guild picket line to do so. On the show, the former Arkansas governor said his poorly funded campaign had become competitive in Iowa because voters recognised that he shared their life experience. "People are looking for a presidential candidate who reminds them more of the guy they work with rather than the guy that laid them off. I think that's part of what's going on right now," he said.
Mr Huckabee joined Kevin Eubanks and the Tonight Show band to play a blues riff on electric bass, in a scene reminiscent of Mr Clinton's saxophone playing on the Arsenio Hall Show in 1992.
The Reuters/Zogby poll put Mr Huckabee ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the Republican race with Fred Thompson in third place. Mr Romney has outspent all his rivals and his campaign staff spent much of yesterday phoning supporters to encourage them to caucus.
On the Democratic side, Mr Obama's campaign was hoping to attract supporters, including many independents and Republicans, to pre-caucus pizza parties. Ms Clinton's campaign had thousands of drivers to ferry voters to caucus venues and provided volunteers with hundreds of shovels to dig out snowed-in supporters.
With results expected to start coming in after 10pm eastern time, US television networks were devoting hours of coverage to the caucuses.
Asked if President Bush would be watching the results, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said it was doubtful because he goes to bed early.