<p>Today will be a historic day for leading presidential candidates as initial elections begin with the Iowa caucus. The latest polls of Hawkeye State voters show Bernie Sanders with a 4-point lead over Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>The Quinnipiac University poll released last Wednesday shows Bernie Sanders with 49% followed by Hillary Clinton with 45%. Martin O&rsquo;Malley remains at the tail end with single digit support. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Is this dé;jà; vu all over again? Who would have thunk it when the campaign began?&#8221; asks Peter Brown of Quinnipiac. &#8220;Secretary Hillary Clinton struggling to keep up with Senator Bernie Sanders in the final week before the Iowa caucus. ;It must make her think of eight years ago when her failure in Iowa cost her the presidency,&rdquo; he added.</p>
<p>Sanders has been leading in the Hawkeye State for several weeks now, with voter statistics showing a strong male vote. Meanwhile, female Democrats ;continue to cling to the idea of Hillary Clinton as the first female president. ;Senator Sanders earns the most support from voters who identify as &ldquo;very liberal&rdquo; whereas Clinton receives support from voters who consider themselves &ldquo;somewhat liberal.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Perhaps more than other contests, the Iowa caucuses are all about turnout,&rdquo; explains Mr. Brown. &ldquo;If those young, very liberal Democratic Caucus participants show up Monday and are organized, it will be a good night for Senator Sanders. And if Sanders does win Iowa, that could keep a long-shot nomination scenario alive.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>While a win in Iowa (and probably New Hampshire) will certainly keep the underdog socialist in the game, let&rsquo;s not forget that Rick Santorum won in Iowa before his campaign eventually fizzled out. This week ;Santorum said he wouldn&#8217;t have stood a chance with this year&#8217;s debate rules. ;&ldquo;Four short years ago, you won Iowa, beat Mitt Romney, shocked the country, but just the other day you talked about &lsquo;doing what is in the greater good&rsquo; for your campaign. Is Monday night your last stand?&rdquo; asked Bill Hemmer of <em>Fox News</em>.</p>
<p>Santorum replied that this is the type of question that makes voters distrust the American media. ;</p>
<p>On the other side of the fence, we&rsquo;ve got Donald Trump leading by 7 points in Iowa over second-place candidate Ted Cruz. ;While Senator Cruz has made Iowa a priority in recent months, he saw Trump surpass him in the Hawkeye State with an 11 point increase during ;the past 30 days. Trump admitted to <em>ABC News</em> this week that he never ;thought he would be in the lead just before the caucus. &#8220;I&#8217;m somebody who knows how to win,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I close the deal. But I never thought I&#8217;d have 24 point leads in different states.&#8221; ;</p>
<p>A Monmouth University poll released last week shows Trump with 30% in Iowa followed by Cruz with 23% and Senator Marco Rubio with 16%. Evangelical, &ldquo;very conservative,&rdquo; and Tea Party voters tend to support ;Cruz while Trump leads among the &ldquo;somewhat conservative,&rdquo; non-evangelical, and moderate voters. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Turnout is basically what separates Trump and Cruz right now,&rdquo; says Patrick Murray of Monmouth. &ldquo;Trump&rsquo;s victory hinges on having a high number of self-motivated, lone wolf caucus-goers show up Monday night.&rdquo; About 170,000 voters are exptected to show up for the Iowa caucus. This is a ;significant increase from the GOP turnout four years ago (122,000). ;</p>
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