I was looking around for Yepsen's take and finally found it -- he raved about Obama's speech and organization last night, and said that if he wins Iowa, the JJ event will be considered a turning point.
Yepsen Reaction
Some excerpts...
The leading Democratic presidential candidates showed up for the Iowa Democratic Party’s big Jefferson Jackson Dinner Saturday night.
Five of them gave really good speeches.
Barack Obama’s was excellent.
It was one of the best of his campaign. The passion he showed should help him close the gap on Hillary Clinton by tipping some undecided caucus-goers his way. His oratory was moving and he successfully contrasted himself with the others - especially Clinton - without being snide or nasty about it.
(Note, in particular, Yepsen saying Obama was NOT snide or nasty...some in the live blogs last night seemed quite concerned that he was way too hard-hitting for the delicate Iowa voters.)
His coup de grace came with this: "When I am the nominee of this party, the Republican nominee will not be able to say I voted for the war in Iraq, or that I gave George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran, or that I support Bush-Cheney policies of not talking to leaders that we don’t like."
"I don’t want to spend the next year or the next four years refighting the same fights that we had in the 1990s," a reference to the polarization of the Clinton years. "I don’t want to pit red America against blue America."