Caucus Upset News Today

>> reporter: and more recently, senator barack obama staged a caucus upset that catapulted him to the front of the pack. recall that senator hillary clinton was considered all but a shoo-in until then. >> hi. this is michele bachmann calling. >> reporter: what the iowa caucuses are good at is winnowing down the field. >> who comes in second, who comes in third as well as who comes in first. if somebody else does surprisingly well, it could well launch their campaign. its happened before. >> repo...

>> reporter: and more recently, senator barack obama staged a caucus upset that catapulted him to the front of the pack. recall that senator hillary clinton was considered all but a shoo-in until then. >> hi. this is michele bachmann calling. >> reporter: what the iowa caucuses are good at is widowing down the field. >> who comes in second, who comes in third as well as who comes in first. if somebody else tuz surprisingly well, it could well launch their campaign. its happened before. >> report...

>> reporter: in 1984 walter monday dale went from iowa caucus winner to democratic party nominee. in 1988 iowa democrats chose dick gephardt over michael due caucus. later bill clinton was humbled with less than 3% of the votes. democratic nomineon kerry won the caucuses in 2004. >> thank you, iowa, for making me the comeback kerry. >> reporter: and more recently senator barak obama staged a caucus upset that catapulted him to the front of the pack. recall that senator hillary clinton was consid...

Went on to become the gop nominee. for the democrats, the original iowa upset went to jimmy carter in 1976 when the little known georgia governor made a surprisingly strong finish here, launching his political rise to the white house. >> we need to reorganize completely the executive branch of government. >> reporter: in 1984 walter mondale went from iowa caucus winner to democratic party nominee. in 1988 iowa democrats chose dick gephardt over eventual nominee michael dukakis. four years later ...

Mondale went from iowa caucus winner to democratic party nominee. in 1988, iowa democrats chose dick gephardt over eventual nominee michael dukakis and four years later bill clinton was humbled with less than 3% of the caucus vote. native son senator tom harkin won that year. democratic nominee john kerry won the caucuses in 2004. >> thank you, iowa, for making me the comeback kerry. >> reporter: and, more recently, senator barack obama staged a caucus upset that catapulted him to the front of t...

only dreamt about a month ago. >> im asking you to not settle for someone who as your nominee, who might be able to win the election, but the election would be a victory where we wouldnt have a candidate thats elected president who will do whats necessary of what america needs. >> romney, gingrich, perry and bachmann all have campaign events in iowa this hour. well dip in live where and when we can. cnn of course, the place you want to be tomorrow night. we begin getting results from t...

iowa. that happened earlier today. both focused on their attacks on president obama. >> remember when he said if we let him borrow $787 billion, almost a trillion dollars, that he would hold unemployment below 8%. >> the obama cookbook is the exact opposite. higher taxes, more regulations, anti-american energy and class warfare to attack the people who create jobs. its as though the obama cookbook says to get a hard egg you put it in the freezer. its true if you put it there long enoug...

senator rick santorum. lets go to cnns joe johns right now. hes joining us from des moines. i think rick santorum believed in himself. not a whole lot of others, joe, did. but its been quite amazing over these past few days how well hes done. >> reporter: thats true, wolf. you know, more than half of the republicans who participated in this process the last time around viewed themselves as evangelical christians. born again christians. so it might be a little risque to compare this pro...