Obama goes to Iowa in early test of his 2016 campaign trail clout

[September 15, 2015]  By Roberta Rampton
 
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama heads to Des Moines, Iowa on Monday, a trip his administration says is about education and not about the 2016 presidential campaign that has candidates from both parties crisscrossing the state.

But the visit will serve as an early test of how much clout the president, whose second and final term is drawing to a close, might bring to the 2016 campaign trail once the Democratic Party settles on a nominee.

In 2008, Obama won Iowa, a critical early-voting state, beating Hillary Clinton. It was an early victory on his way to eventually defeating her and becoming the Democratic candidate.

"Obama really loves Iowa. I think he knows that if it hadn't been for Iowa, he would be a senator from Illinois," said Steffen Schmidt, a political scientist at Iowa State University.

Obama will hold a town hall at one of the most ethnically diverse high schools in the state. There he will discuss new measures to spur college enrolment, an effort to keep the spotlight on his second term while the fight over who will next carry the Democrats' banner commands more attention.

As the sitting president, Obama is nominally the leader of the Democratic Party and remains influential as his potential successors debate how to continue and extend his policies.

Obama has not said whom he favors in the Democratic race. He has spoken highly of Clinton, his former secretary of state, and of his loyal Vice President Joe Biden, who is weighing whether to make a late entry into the race.

Clinton, the current front-runner, has lost ground in Iowa to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, polls show. Clinton is also in Iowa on Monday, campaigning in the northwest of the state.

Obama's trip will send a message to Iowa Democrats about the "high stakes" of the 2016 race in the early voting state, said Jeff Link, an Iowa Democratic strategist.

"While we are all watching the entertaining Trump show, it's important to remember that we must work hard to deliver a Democratic victory next November," Link said, referring to New York billionaire Donald Trump, the current Republican Party front runner.

(Additional reporting by Kay Henderson in Des Moines, Iowa; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Alden Bentley)

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