Jan 4, 2008 7:17 am US/Central
Obama's Remarks After Winning The Iowa Caucuses
DES MOINES, Iowa (CBS) ―
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Sen. Barack Obama boards the plane from Iowa to New Hampshire.
CBS
Shortly after boarding the flight between Des Moines, Iowa, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Sen. Barack Obama spoke to reporters. Here are excerpts from his remarks.
Reporter: Are you surprised by the margin? It was quite a few points.
Obama: You know, what I'll tell you is that what I was so pleased with was not just the fact that we won, or the raw numbers, but what it showed about the country. You know, I think it's fair to say that there were some who were skeptical that young people would come out, that independents and Republicans would be voting Democratic in a caucus -- caucusing in a Democratic caucus – that we would see the kind of boost in turnout that we had anticipated. And so it really was a victory for the people of Iowa that I think it's a harbinger of what's going to happen around the country. We went to a precinct, and … just shook hands as people were walking in, and, you know, you had high school kids who came out, you had middle-aged folks who said they'd never caucused before who said they were coming out to caucus for me. You had folks who said, 'I'm switching, you know, my party registration to come out to caucus.' And we saw that in precincts across the board and I just, I really think that, the country is interested in, um, not just change in the abstract, but a… kind of change which involves them getting involved, paying attention, holding their elected officials accountable, um, demanding straight talk, ah, wanting us to solve problems, and so that was reflected, I think, in the results. And when you go through raw numbers tomorrow, I think you'll see that. And I'm just very happy about that. That makes me feel good.
Reporter: What message does it send to John Edwards and Hillary Clinton?
Obama: I don't want to get into the prognosticating. That's your job. But I want to say thank you to the people of Iowa because I think they sparked a potential movement for change in the country that will be inspiring for a lot of people.
Reporter: Would you describe personally, I mean this has been such a long campaign? Your wife said (if) no win here, it would just be a dream. Can you just describe that moment when it first sunk into you and your family that you won the first bout?
Obama: We felt good for the last two weeks because we were so proud of what was happening on the ground. We were seeing the crowds, and so regardless of how the numbers played out exactly, we were really confident about us having changed how politics operated in this caucus. And it makes me very optimistic about the country. I think we can do it for the country as a whole.
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