Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/candidates-celebrate-the-fourth-in-iowas-battleground Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Presidential candidates have been swarming to Iowa, making 60 visits in June alone, to gain supporters for the first-in-the-nation caucus there on Jan. 14. Democratic and Republican party leaders in Iowa provide their assessments of the campaigns. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. GWEN IFILL: Next, to Iowa. There were 60 candidate visits there last month, and eight of them are there just this week. It must be Independence Day. With events in 10 cities and towns over four days, Hillary Clinton is hoping to jump start her lagging Iowa campaign.SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), New York: Hi, everybody. GWEN IFILL: To do that, she brought along perhaps the nation's most popular Democrat, her husband, Bill Clinton.BILL CLINTON, Former President of the United States: You will never have a chance to vote for someone who will leave more people better off when she quits than when she started, who will make you more proud, and who will restore our country's leadership for peace and freedom and prosperity. I hope the next president of the United States, Senator Hillary Clinton. GWEN IFILL: In Des Moines last night and Iowa City this afternoon, the former president spoke for only a few minutes before turning the microphone over to his wife. SEN. HILLARY CLINTON: Thank you. And after six-and-a-half years of this administration, are you ready for change? GWEN IFILL: Senator Clinton enjoys consistent leads in national polls, but not in Iowa, where 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards has made more than twice as many visits. Edwards ran strongly in Iowa in 2004 when he mounted his first presidential campaign.Illinois Senator Barack Obama is also polling well there. The recently anointed fundraising leader went on the air with two new biographical ads last week. OBAMA AD NARRATOR: Barack went to Harvard Law, but returned to the community to lead a voter registration drive. GWEN IFILL: Obama campaigned through three southeastern Iowa towns today and will attend Fourth of July celebrations in three more tomorrow.Republican candidate Mitt Romney has also spent the first half of the week in Iowa. The former Massachusetts governor barely breaks 10 percent in most national polls, but he's leading the pack here, boosting his name recognition by spending money on early television ads.FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R), Massachusetts: I'm going to work like crazy to go to Washington and bring change there.