Des Moines, Iowa - Democrat Barack Obama, seeking to become the first African-American president, won a momentum-building victory over fellow US Senator Hillary Clinton as voters in Iowa held the opening nominating contests of 2008.
Illinois Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama delivers a speech at a caucus night rally at Hy-Vee Hall after winning the 2008 Iowa Democratic Caucus in Des Moines, Iowa, USA 03 January 2008. Senator Barack Obama topped Democratic presidential contenders as presumed frontrunner Hillary Clinton was beaten into third place Thursday night in Iowa. EPA/MICHAL CZERWONKA
On the Republican side, Thursday's major-party preference polls in the rural, Midwestern state handed a decisive win to Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee as the buildup to the November 4 general elections officially got underway.
Final results showed Obama beating Clinton, the front-runner in national polls, into third place with 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards in second. Obama polled 37.6 per cent, Edwards 29.75 per cent and Clinton 29.47 per cent.
Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor popular with fellow evangelical Christians, led centre-right Republicans with 34 per cent of the vote, with 96 per cent of precincts reporting. Only former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was even competitive with 25 per cent of the vote.
Obama's breakout victory in Iowa is the culmination of his campaign for most of 2007 to challenge Clinton, wife of popular former president Bill Clinton and long seen as the centre-left's top contender.
'On this January night, on this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said you couldn't do,' Obama told supporters, his voice hoarse from round-the-clock campaigning. 'You have done what the state of New Hampshire can do in five days.'
New Hampshire will become the second state to choose party nominees on Tuesday. Clinton was still leading in statewide polls ahead of Thursday night's vote.
Obama has positioned himself as a force for change from typical Washington politics. That message seemed to resonate with Iowa caucus-goers like retired teacher Diane Larson, 55.
'I'm so sick of normal politicians. I think they're all power- hungry people,' she said. 'To me, (Obama) just represents something different. He seems a little more normal and less jaded.'
The three top Democrats had been locked in a tight race ahead of the Iowa caucuses.
Obama, whose father is from Kenya, is a Chicago lawyer and community activist whose personal charisma and positive style catapulted him to national prominence after he won a US Senate seat from Illinois in 2004. His success Thursday night came in a mostly rural state with a more than 90-per-cent white population.
Clinton, speaking from a podium with her presidential husband smiling thinly at her side, glossed over the disappointment of her third-place finish.
'This is a great night for Democrats. We have seen an unprecedented turnout in Iowa,' she said, offering congratulations to Obama and Edwards as 'exceptional candidates.'
On the Republican side, Huckabee's win marked a serious blow for Romney, who had hoped that an Iowa victory would propel him to dominance in other early voting states.
Romney had built a large campaign infrastructure in Iowa and vastly outspent Huckabee, only to fall decisively into second place.
Romney rose in polls and campaign fundraising in 2007 to become the Republican national co-frontrunner with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who mostly ignored Iowa to focus on larger, later states and was at just 3 per cent Thursday night.
'As we have moved along, you are going to see that strategy pay off,' Giuliani told broadcaster CNN Thursday night from Florida.
Huckabee's upstart campaign caught fire in late autumn, as he performed well in several of the numerous candidate debates. Polling showed that religious conservatives in the right wing of the Republican Party looked to Huckabee - an ordained Baptist minister - amid their lingering doubts about the more liberal records of Romney and Giuliani on social issues.
The Iowa result shows that 'people really are more important than the purse,' Huckabee said.
'I hope we will forever change how Americans look at their political system and how we elect our political officials,' he said. 'Wherever it ends, it started here in Iowa.'
Romney congratulated Huckabee on his victory and focussed on the fact that both had beaten candidates with much greater name recognition before the campaign began - Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain.
Romney is locked in a tight battle with McCain in New Hampshire, according to polls. McCain, who drew 13 per cent of the votes in Iowa, won New Hampshire during his first presidential run against Bush in 2000.
McCain finished effectively in a tie for third place with Fred Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, who also had 13 per cent.
In a not-so-subtle jab at Romney, McCain said Thursday night at a New Hampshire campaign stop that Huckabee's victory showed 'you can't buy an election ... and negative campaigns don't work.'
Romney had spent far more money than any other candidate on television commercials and campaigning in Iowa, with many of his ads in recent weeks directly targeting Huckabee.
Vance Wartick, a 59-year-old sales representative and first-time caucus-goer, said he started out in favour of Romney but was turned off by the negative attacks and changed his vote to Huckabee.
Huckabee 'comes across as a person I could trust to do what he says he's going to do,' Wartick said.
In what has become a ritual of grass-roots democracy, Republican and Democratic voters gathered separately Thursday night in thousands of meetings statewide, voicing their preferences for the major-party nominations for the November 4 general elections.
Two veteran Democratic senators, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Joe Biden of Delaware, announced late Thursday that they would quit the race after each finishing with less than 1 per cent in Iowa.
It remains to be seen whether Edward's second-place finish can revive his campaign, which had stalled in the months leading up to Iowa.
'The one thing that's clear,' said Edwards, '... is that the status quo lost, and change won.'
© 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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