That was the campaign that was

James Forsyth on how the two candidates earned their party’s nominations and how the final stages of the campaign are playing out

It was on the eve of the Iowa caucus, 2 January, that it became clear that Barack Obama’s candidacy was more than just a form of political entertainment. Obama’s last speaking engagement was in a high school gym in Des Moines. It was the hot ticket of a cold night. This was the best orator in a generation giving the most important speech of his political career so far; the youthful crowd were expecting quite a show.

But the star attraction had lost his voice. When he tried to hit the rhetorical high notes, nothing came out. The crowd didn’t desert or turn on him, though. Instead, they chanted his iconic slogans, carrying him through. As they filed out of the hall into the snow, they were quieter than they had been going in. But talking to them I realised that they were more determined; the experience had bonded them to the candidate in a way that another fine speech would not have done. That evening, the Obama candidacy matured into more than the sum of its words.

The next night I went to a caucus in Johnston, a suburb of Des Moines. In 2004, 90 people had caucused here. The locals I was going with thought there’d be more this year, maybe twice that. But when we arrived, the lines were around the block: 795 voters were trying to get in. The queue to register as a Democrat went out the door and even on this bitter January night people were prepared to wait outside to be signed in. The story was similar, if less dramatic, all across Iowa. For the first time the Obama supporters’ mantra, that ‘change is coming’ sounded more prescient than pretentious.