On Saturday, The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics released a poll that showed Hillary Clinton’s commanding lead in Iowa was a thing of the past, and evaporated to a mere seven points over Democratic rival Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Many are now comparing Sanders’ coalition to the Obama coalition of 2008, which allowed Obama to upset Clinton in Iowa.
Bloomberg’s John Heilemann says their pollster Ann Selzer is reminded of 2008 in terms of, “The coalition that Sanders is building in Iowa – young voters, liberals, and new, first-time caucus goers, people who have not ever caucused before, that is the Obama coalition in Iowa.”
The Des Moines Register’s Kathie Obradovich said about the poll, “Barack Obama came out of nowhere and surprised Hillary Clinton in 2008, Bernie Sanders seems to be doing the same thing.”
On Sunday, Bloomberg pollster J. Ann Selzer said about the poll, “You look into the internals as we call them, who is it that he [Bernie Sanders] is strong with? So he’s losing by 7 points. He leads by 8 points with people who say this will be the first time they participated in the caucus. He leads by over 20 points with people who say they consider themselves independents, and people who are under age 45. Now that is the Obama coalition. Those are the groups he put together that surprised Hillary Clinton in 2008.”
Like New Hampshire, Iowa is starting to feel the Bern.