"Obama, campaigning in Iowa, focuses on war stance"

Des Moines Register (IA) reprinted in USA Today:

CLINTON, Iowa — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama worked to set himself apart from his main rivals on the issue of Iraq Saturday at the start of a campaign swing through eastern Iowa, focusing on his early opposition to the war.

"We're in the midst of a war that never should have been authorized," Obama told an audience of more than 2,000 at Loras College in Dubuque.

Afterward, Obama said the comment was intended to illustrate the difference between himself and most of his Democratic opponents.

"I think it's a contrast between me and the other candidates," Obama said in a Des Moines Register interview afterward. "I have consistently believed that this war was not just a problem of execution, but was a problem of conception." Obama also said that Iowa Democrats who were attracted to former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's presidential campaign in 2004 were searching for the kind of change the Illinois senator says his campaign represents.

"I do think the Dean campaign four years ago captured the desire of people to reengage in the political process," Obama said. "What we're going to try to do in this campaign is try to encourage that kind of involvement." Like Obama, Dean was an early critic of the war in Iraq. Dean's campaign became somewhat of a national sensation during the summer before the first 2004 nominating contests. But Dean finished a distant third place in Iowa's leadoff caucuses and was out of the race less than a month later.

Speaking to big audiences around the country 10 months before the 2008 caucuses, Obama also has worked to project his campaign as a national movement with the war as a central issue.

Obama's campaign Saturday circulated a pamphlet that included the text of a 2002 speech he gave as a state senator, objecting to a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, five months before President Bush ordered the attack.

Obama has emphasized his longstanding opposition to the war, while other candidates, such as former Sen. John Edwards, have since expressed regret for voting for the Senate resolution that allowed Bush to use military force.

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has steadfastly refused to call the vote a mistake, although she has said she would not have voted for the resolution in hindsight.

Obama supporter Dale Todd of Cedar Rapids said his record on the war is the purest of the field.

"He doesn't have that war vote," Todd said. "That's still on a lot of people's minds." Todd also acknowledged Obama was not in a position to vote on the war resolution. "No one's perfectly clean on that issue," he added.

Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, two years after the war resolution. More recently, he has proposed beginning withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq by May 1 and having all troops out by March 31, 2008.

Obama stopped in Clinton and was on his way to Davenport, making his third visit to the Iowa since announcing his candidacy a month ago. He plans to campaign in Muscatine and Burlington Sunday.

The Saturday stops helped cap a busy week of campaigning by Democrats in the state, beginning with Clinton and including former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden.

Obama said his campaign's ability to generate large crowds, including about 500 at Clinton Community College Saturday, was a sign of hopeful curiosity among Democratic activists, but not necessarily a sign of its viability.

In fact, license plates from surrounding states marked many of the cars at the Loras event and some of the audience members who asked Obama questions at the Dubuque forum said they were from Wisconsin and Minnesota.

"The one thing I am mindful of is that big crowds don't guarantee big success in Iowa," Obama said.

Most polls have shown an early lead in Iowa for Edwards, who has kept in close touch with his Iowa base since his second-place finish in 2004.

Clinton and Obama have also ranked high in early surveys of likely caucus-goers.

But Obama, who has hired top aides with experience in past winning caucus campaigns, said he plans to campaign hand-to-hand in Iowa as the campaign continues.

"Everything we do is going to be designed to engage people, but also win the caucus," he said. "If we channel the energy and excitement that we're seeing into an effective organization ... I think we can win."

NationalNineNews (AU) has this story about an unidentified stop in Iowa: "Iraqis must make reforms: Obama." Cross-posted at www.seattleforbarackobama.com.