In Clive, Dem caucus-goers at one precinct demonstrated in a snapshot why Obama won.

When caucus-goers cast their first vote, Obama had 140 votes, Clinton 108 and Edwards 79, followed by Biden 46, Richardson 46, Dodd 10, Kucinich 2, and non- committed 7.

The lower-tier candidates didn't have enough supporters to receive delegates, so they realigned their votes. Of the 444 residents attending the final results were: 200 for Obama (4 delegates) 127 for Edwards (2 delegates) and 117 for Clinton (2 delegates).

Tom Whitney, former chairman of Iowa Democratic Party and organizer for Obama, said the surprise of the evening is that most of the Richardson people and Biden people joined the Obama group. "The surprise of the evening is that Hillary finished a distant third," Whitney said. "I think Democrats want to move on. The Clintons really have had their moment on the national stage and I think Democrats are looking for a new direction."

Ed Nalbantian, of New Jersey, who works on the Bill Richardson campaign as a fundraiser and attended the Democratic caucuses in Clive 2 to observe, said he witnessed a surprising amount of enthusiasm for Obama

"Our group stuck together. We had a very good solid group, but we just fell short of viability. Sadly, the Biden and Dodd camps would naturally move to us but they were unwiling to do so, so ultimately we released our supporters and most of them went to Senator Obama."

Nalbantian said he thinks most of the Richardson supporters went to the Obama camp because "he is a fresh and different candidate and people want someone they feel they can believe in. The support for Senator Obama is coming from Democrats. I don't see a lot of Republicans moving toward them. It's new voters, new people coming into the political process in a way that is extraordinary."

He noted the caucus reminded him of 1968 when Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey ran for president. "There's more energy and more excitement today than I remember in that election which they say was a dramatic time in American politics and history. And we're witnessing a repeat of that, if not something more exciting than that."

Directly next to the lunchroom where the Democrats caucused, 246 GOP caucus-goers cast their votes in a secret ballot in the middle school gymnasium. Results were: Huckabee, 83; Romney, 60; McCain, 48; Thompson, 31; Guiliani, 12; Paul, 10 and Hunter, 2.

Sally Fisher, who describes herself as a moderate Republican, said she voted for McCain because he has experience, knows what he's talking about and he's the most moderate of any of the candidates. She said she thinks Iowa is a "one trick pony state" for Huckabee and has concerns about the future of the GOP.

"This is a moderate caucus traditionally, but the conservatives and the Evangelicals and fundamentalists, Pentacostal, have taken it over and taken the moderate away from the Republican Party. There are those of us who would like the party to return to normal and be like it used to be."

Jim Bruno, who had been a Republican for 20 years, said he recently switched to become a Democrat and he's supporting Obama. He said he's dissatisfied with the current administration.

"I'm just tired of seven years of a rogue administration and an inept Congress so I'm voting and caucusing for the person I think can unite everybody," Bruno said. I don't want a career politician. I want someone with people skills, communicaiton skills that can unite the country and that's why I'm for Obama."

Bruno said he will stick with Obama through the November election.

"I think we have a broken government and we need someone new and fresh that can fix it. He's my choice. If he can't do it, I'm not sure who can."