Interest Way Up in Presidential Campaign

Coffee table meetings in a living room have given way to 3,000 people packing a town hall like it was a rock concert. The face of Iowa politicking is changing. The intimate meetings with a handful of voters are looking more like late season campaign rallies. The Associated Press says it could be because voters are a lot more interested in the 2008 campaign:

"A poll released April 12 by The Pew Research Center for People and the Press found that 55 percent of voters are paying 'very or fairly close' attention to the presidential race nine months before Iowa's lead-off caucuses. By contrast, only 38 percent were paying close attention in early 2003 and 45 percent in early 1999.

Democrats have consistently paid greater attention to the 2008 race than Republicans by an average of 12 percentage points, according to the Pew poll."

Just like in the polls, Democratic frontrunners have been drawing larger crowds in Iowa than GOP candidates. Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) have both drawn crowds in the thousands. Nine Republican candidates showed up at one event drawing 1,000. (Daily Star)