Kerry surges to big win in Iowa

WASHINGTON, Iowa — Sen. John Kerry, whose campaign for president was widely seen as faltering a month ago, surged ahead of his opponents to win the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus Monday and set the stage for a battle in New Hampshire.

Kerry scored a resounding victory with 38 percent of the vote. In second place with 32 percent was Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

If the Kerry and Edwards camps were elated with the results, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, the one-time frontrunner, put on a brave face and rallied his troops despite coming in a distant third with 18 percent.

Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri got only 11 percent of the vote and in his concession speech all but acknowledged that he would be dropping out of the race, telling supporters that his campaign "may be ending tonight but the fight will never end."

Gephardt said he will support the eventual victor "in any way I can."

Kerry, in his victory speech, referred to himself as "the comeback Kerry."

"We have a message for the special interests that won the Bush White House," Kerry said, "We're coming, you're going and don't let the door hit you on the way out."

Kerry said his victory shows that he is the best candidate to take on President Bush and "literally give America back its future and its soul."

"Iowa, I love you," he said.

The Iowa results show a sea change in Democratic opinion over the past two weeks. Heading into the final days, Dean and Gephardt were fighting for the top position. But Dean began to falter in the face of his own missteps and intense attacks from his fellow Democrats. Gephardt, according to caucusgoers, simply ran out of gas.

"I think Gephardt's time has passed," said Bonnie Tindal, a corporate secretary from Washington, Iowa, who attended her caucus as a Kerry supporter.

"We added most of the Gephardt people after it was clear he couldn't win," she said.

Under caucus rules, supporters of candidates unable to amass sufficient support to earn delegates are allowed to switch to another camp. That appears to have benefited Kerry and Edwards.

The results statewide practically mirrored the outcome in the southeastern Iowa city of Washington, which experienced an unprecedented number of caucus goers. Each of the city's three wards more than doubled the usual turnout, with 73 showing up in Ward 1. Edwards captured two of the city's three precincts, with Kerry taking the other. Each earned eight delegates.