Iowa caucus: What they said

“Hope is the bedrock of this nation. The belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be. That is what we started here in Iowa and that is the message we can now carry to New Hampshire and beyond.”

Barack Obama

“Tonight we proved that American politics still is in the hands of ordinary folks like you and across this country who believe that it wasn’t about who raised the most money but who raised the greatest hopes, dreams and aspirations for our children and their future. And tonight I hope we will forever change the way Americans look at their political system and how we elect presidents and elected officials. Tonight, the people of Iowa made a choice, and their choice was clear. Their choice was for a change.”

Mike Huckabee

“This tidal wave of change that began tonight in Iowa and that will sweep across America, when that wave is finished, when it is done, every one of us are going to be able to look our children in the eye and say, we did what our parents did for us and what our grandparents did for us – which is: We left America better than we found it, and we gave our children a better life than we had. That’s what this is about. That’s what this change is about.”

John Edwards

“This is obviously a bit like a baseball game, first inning in a – well, it’s a 50-inning ballgame. I’m going to keep on battling all the way and anticipate I’ll get the nomination when it’s all said and done. … Mike has a natural base here, and he was able to call on that base, and he did a nice job getting them out. And I, of course, when I started this campaign, I was in single digits, and we battled hard.”

Mitt Romney

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Fred Thompson