2-2-16-ERNIE ALLEN’S TOP STORY-
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were locked in an improbably tight duel in Iowa’s leadoff presidential caucuses Monday as the two rivals offered Americans a stark choice between political pragmatism and revolution.
Nine months after launching their campaigns, Clinton and Sanders faced Iowa voters in equally precarious positions. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, unable to turn it into a three-way race, ended his quest for the nomination.
Clinton, who entered the race as the heavily favored front-runner, was hoping to banish the possibility of dual losses in Iowa and in New Hampshire, the nation’s first primary, where she trails the Vermont senator. Two straight defeats could set off alarms within the party and throw into question her ability to defeat a Republican.
Sanders, for his part, was hoping to replicate President Barack Obama’s pathway to the presidency by using a victory in Iowa to catapult his passion and ideals of “democratic socialism” deep into the primaries. He raised $20 million during January and hoped to turn an Iowa win into a fundraising bonanza.
“We’ve got a tie ballgame — that’s where we are,” Sanders told volunteers and supporters in Des Moines, imploring them to turn out for the caucuses.
Even before the caucuses began, Sanders was working to discount the importance of any Clinton edge coming out of Iowa, telling reporters that if the former secretary of state “ends up with two delegates more of many, many hundred delegates, you tell me why that’s the end of the world.”
He served notice: “We’re taking this all of the way.”
A loss in Iowa would be a disappointment for Sanders’ upstart challenge against Clinton, who has deep ties throughout the party’s establishment and a strong following among a more diverse electorate that plays a larger role in primary contests in February and March.
Caucus-goers were choosing between Clinton’s pledge to use her wealth of experience in government to bring about steady progress on democratic ideals and Sanders’ call for radical change in a system rigged against ordinary Americans.
