DES MOINES, IA.–For months, White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who won the Iowa caucus a few minutes ago, ended his rallies with a cry “Fired Up! Ready to Go!”
Now the crowd here at Hy-Vee Hall, watching the returns on big screen tvs here,with Obama clinching, is chanting Obama’s signature “fired up” closing.
Some notes and quotes:
From senior strategist David Axelrod on the Obama win: “It’ss very significant. Its the first contest. We started out very far behind,” he said (However, that was only true in national polls. In Iowa the race was always close between Obama, John Edwards and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The is “very very meaningful. What it means is I think there is a real market for the kind of leadership Sen. Obama is offering. I think people want to be unified as a country and get past this divisive politics that has riddled us for so long,” Axelrod said.
Color: While the youthful crowd is filling in the upper hall, Obama’s best donors were celebrating at a private reception in another part of the building. With Obama tonight is Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) one of the first people who encouraged Obama to run for president.
