OAK BROOK, Ill. -- Respondents to Friday's Kraft/CSP Daily News Pollwhich asked, "Do you believe that the results of the Iowa caucuses are an accurate reflection of which candidates most Americans want to see in the general election?"overwhelmingly (69%) said no. At presstime, only 23% of the more than 250 poll participants said yes, and the rest were not sure.
Nevertheless, CSP Daily News readers proved extremely adept at picking the winners of last Thursday's contest in the Hawkeye State. In two early December polls, they picked Senator Barack Obama ([image-nocss] D-Ill.) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R) as the candidates that they thought would win (versus the candidate they wanted to win) in each party.
About 346,000 Iowa voters caucused on January 3, according to the CaucusIowa.com website. The results broke down like this:
Democrats
Barack Obama, 38% John Edwards, 30% Hillary Clinton, 29% Bill Richardson, 2% Joe Biden, 0.9% Uncommitted, 0.14% Chris Dodd, 0.02%Republicans
Mike Huckabee, 34% Mitt Romney, 25% Fred Thompson, John McCain (tie), 13% Ron Paul, 10% Rudy Giuliani, 3%With more than 250 people responding, respectively, to CSP Daily News' polls about Iowa, 45% predicted Huckabee to win, while another approximately 24% picked former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and about 17% sided with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. On the Democratic side, 54.5% favored an Obama win, followed by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) with more than 30% and former Sen. John Edwards with nearly 7%.
Past winners in Iowa have included John Kerry (D) in 2004, George W. Bush (R) and Al Gore (D) in 2000, Bob Dole (R) in 1996, Tom Harkin (D) in 1992, Dole and Dick Gephardt (D) in 1988, Walter Mondale (D) in 1984 and George H.W. Bush (R) and Jimmy Carter (D) in 1980.
To better understand where convenience store operators stand on both their favorite candidates and key election concerns, CSP magazine also surveyed a dozen industry executives. (Click here to read the previousCSP Daily News coverage, and see the January 2008 issue of CSP magazine for complete coverage.)
And be sure to participate in today's Kraft/CSP Daily News Poll on the Republican candidates in January 8's New Hampshire primary, as well as tomorrow's companion poll on the Democratic candidates.
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