Iowa Makes Fertile Battleground for Obama, Romney

"Taken together, there is every reason for Iowans to vote for Barack Obama," Harkin says.

Rep. King, who formally endorsed Romney in May and who has his own congressional seat to defend in November, thinks the former Massachusetts governor needs to clarify some of his energy and agricultural positions to Iowa voters.

"I'd like to ask Mitt Romney to come to Iowa and take a stand and just inform the public as to what your policy and position will be, and I think that I'm comfortable with him -- I've not heard anything that causes me pause -- I just think that there's an undercurrent of doubt out there and that that affects peoples' thinking in the agriculture community," King says.

Part of what King may be speaking to is Romney's tepid energy platform. Iowa's energy sector has obviously benefited from ethanol business, but it also stands as the nation's top job market in wind power.

During this election cycle, Romney has criticized Obama's "imaginary world where government-subsidized windmills and solar panels could power the economy."

But before the 2008 primary cycle he seemed open to the idea: "Energy independence will require technology that allows us to use energy more efficiently ... more ethanol, more biodiesel, more solar and wind power, and a fuller exploitation of coal."

Obama isn't without his own hurdles.

One Iowa Republican says that the president has taken for granted many of the people who voted for him in 2008.

"Obama has let them down," says Kevin McLaughlin, Polk County GOP chairman. "They're tired of being taken for granted by the Democrats ... and tired of Democrats showing up before the elections and expecting them all to vote for the Democrat candidate."

McLaughlin says he has spoken to a number of people in his county who supported the president in 2008 but have reservations ahead of the 2012 race.

One such person is Rev. Bobby Young, who is the senior pastor at Mt. Hebron Missionary Baptist Church in Des Moines.

Young says he has never really had a party affiliation and that a candidate has to "strike a chord" in him to win his vote. He explains one of those issues.

"I see some things that probably most politicians don't see, because I deal with stuff at a grassroots level. We are creating an underclass in this country, and I don't like what they're doing and how they're doing it," says Young.