Obama is in the best position to win Iowa

[calteacherguy]

because he leads as both the first AND second choice candidate.

Follow this for a moment: In most precincts, each candidate must receive support from at least 15 percent of the folks in attendance to remain viable. If a smaller percentage of caucusgoers in a particular precinct supports Sen. Chris Dodd, for example, each Dodd supporter has the option of throwing his or her support to someone else, someone they like second-best.

And that may help the second-best person come in first.

This is why Barack Obama recently asked a Dodd supporter in Iowa if he could please be her second choice.

"Senator Obama was extremely gracious," Democratic activist Karen Thalacker told the Chicago Sun-Times. "I told him, 'Absolutely.' "

What a strange phenomenon -- begging to be someone's second choice. But it matters so much that pollsters ask Democrats in Iowa not only about their first choices but about their second choices, too. (Obama leads in both categories, according to the new Washington Post-ABC News Poll.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/22/AR2007112201319.html