Presidential hopeful John Edwards placed second in Iowa—a state where he had invested much time, visiting all 99 counties twice in his bid for the presidency.

With 99 percent of the precincts reporting Thursday evening, Barack Obama had 38 percent of the vote while John Edwards had 30 percent and Hillary Clinton had 29 percent.

“The status quo lost and change won,” Edwards said to supporters at the Renaissance Savery Hotel in downtown Des Moines following news of Obama’s victory. He restated his populist message of ending corporate greed and fighting for the middle class, and added that “this march of change continues on.”

The senator also said that a candidate’s message meant more to voters than the amount of money he or she has raised. “We saw two candidates who thought their money would make them inevitable,” he said—alluding to rivals Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney.

Elizabeth Edwards echoed her husband’s sentiments. She called him a “messenger of change” and said that “despite the fact that he was outspent 6 to 2, that message still got through.”

As he left the stage, Edwards shouted, “there is an energy and momentum behind this campaign that cannot be stopped,” which prompted chants of “Go John Go!” from supporters.

In a concession speech delivered at approximately 9:25 CST, Hillary Clinton congratulated her Democratic rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards, both of whom finished ahead of her here, saying tonight was a “good night for Democrats.” She told cheering supporters (who briefly changed “New Hampshire!” before she took the stage) that she’s always been prepared to run a national race, and said she’s “SO ready for the rest of this campaign.”

Joined on stage by her husband and daughter, Madeleine Albright, Gen Wesley Clark, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and a host of other supporters, she said “we’re going to get up tomorrow and keep pushing as hard as we can to get the message out about what is at stake in this election; because we know that it is literally the future of our country.”

Just before her speech, her campaign manager sent out a statement saying “our campaign was built for a marathon and we have the resources to run a national race.” Read the full statement after the jump.

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An email sent to traveling Obama press from the campaign reads:

“After visiting the caucus location in Ankeny, Obama went to dinner with family and friends at Flemmings in West Des Moines until about 8:30pm. At 8:30, standing with David Plouffe, he saw that he had been projected the winner.”

Earlier today, Hillary Clinton’s team revised their turnout estimates up to 150,000 — which would be a record. Turns out, Iowans are shattering even those raised expectations.

Clinton Spokesman Mo Elleithee confirms what the Obama campaign is telling Major Garrett — saying they think turnout will be somewhere north of 200K (and probably south of 250K).

While many believe such high turnout is great news for Obama, since it means he expanded the universe of usually older caucus goers to include the younger Iowans who are more likely to support the him, Elleithee said it was “too soon to start making projections” about what the turnout numbers mean, and that they’re hearing positive things from the field in rural and urban counties.

“Look, we’re just playing our game. We came here, we’re going to do as well as we could. We feel very good about the ground game that we had. We feel very good about the way things are looking at this point of the evening,” he said.

Asked about the entrance polls that show Obama in front, followed by Clinton and Edwards, Elleithee said “We’re focused on the info that’s coming in to us from the field. We feel good about where we are.”

“As the boss said earlier, today is just the beginning. It’s not the end. Tomorrow you hit reset and you start all over again in New Hampshire and you run hard for five days.”

What if it’s really, really close? “New Hampshire be very exciting for everyone won’t it?”

They’re expecting a fairly late night. Sen Clinton is still upstairs watching returns, and is likely to come speak to supporters before 9pm CST.

Senior Obama advisor David Axelrod is hearing from his agents in the field that the turnout could be as high as 200-230,000 at today’s all-important Iowa caucuses. To put this in perspective - in 2004, 124,000 Iowans caucused.

All the political pundits predict that the bigger the turnout, the better the news is for team Obama. So the mood is high among Obama staffers here at Hyvee Hall in Des Moines, where the press is gathered in preparation for a 10pm rally.

The candidate spent his day doing local Iowa and New Hampshire television and radio interviews, playing basketball with staff and friends, and, of course, wooing voters. Obama popped into a crowded Des Moines food court to shake hands this afternoon, called a few undecided voters himself, and spoke with about 50 caucus goers at an Ankeny caucus site.

Obama is expected to take the stage here at 10pm to deliver a short 10-minute speech to about 3,000 supporters. The voice-weary candidate will then return to his West Des Moines hotel to say goodbye to his family before hopping his jet to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Here’s what Axelrod had to say about the mood of the campaign, the importance of the Iowa caucuses, and a little about the senator’s day:

Sen Clinton stopped by Precinct 90 in Des Moines, a small gym in Lovejoy Elementary school for a last-minute hand shaking session with actual (not just likely) caucus goers. Asked how she was feeling as she worked her way down the line of civic-minded Iowans, she said “great! It’s exciting to see this in person.” And after one woman told her how excited she was, she said “this is exciting! More people than every before.”

All told, she spent 5 minutes at the site before jumping in her motorcade to head back to campaign HQ at the Hotel Fort Des Moines. She’ll meet her family there; both her husband and daughter also visited several caucus before the doors closed at 7:00pm central time. The Clintons plan to watch caucus returns together in their room before going downstairs to address the crowd.

Iowa-savvy campaign staffers at the precinct said they’ve never seen turnout like this — noting that there were more Hillary backers in the room than supporters of other candidate. To this reporter’s eyes, things looked pretty even — two tables for Hillary, two for Obama, one for Edwards, and a lot of Obama stickers in line.

On Caucus Day in Iowa, it’s all about GOTV: Get Out the Vote. Hillary Clinton’s campaign has handed out more than 600 snow shovels and bought hundreds of pounds of salt to make sure sidewalks and parking lots are clear across the state; they’ve enlisted more than 5,000 drivers and rented nearly 400 SUV’s to help the 4,927 people who’ve requested a ride get to their caucus location; they’ve even arranged for babysitters to take care of supporters’ children during caucus hours of 7-9pm.

Check out Clinton Iowa Director Teresa Vilmain explaining what the campaign is doing behind the scenes on the Big Day to translate ones and twos into actual delegates — and how they’ve trained precinct captains to bring supporters from other candidates and undecideds over to team Hillary.

(Quick Explainer: campaigns separate supporters into numbered categories: 1’s and 2s are a campaign’s firm supporters, as opposed to the undecided 3’s, negative leaning 4’s, and 5’s — which Clinton spokesman Jay Carson described as people who “wouldn’t caucus for you if you gave them a million dollars and cured their kid’s cancer”)

Also listen for a bit of the expectations game (Teresa says Clinton started with zero organization in the state, compared to Edwards who retained 74% of his precinct captains from 2004), and a numerical quantification of just how sick Iowans are of all the phone calls they’re getting — which, for undecideds, can hit 15 a night.

Barack Obama appeared on five of the six morning shows this morning - opting not to appear on FOX News Channel. The official campaign rationale was “scheduling.”

Basically the news is he has a hoarse voice, but is confident. “This is the beginning and not the end,” he said on Good Morning America. And when asked about Hillary Clinton using his “fired up, ready to go” line yesterday he predictably responded, “I want everybody in the country to be fired up and ready to go.”

Obama woke up early to pretape his morning show appearances, beginning at 5:40am. He then did a series of radio interviews and spent the morning with his family. As I type this he is stopping by a Des Moines food court for a photo-op. The campaign has “pooled” this event, so one television and one print reporter and a couple of cameras will go with him to minimize the commotion. The photos, video, and read-out will be shared with the whole traveling press.

He will spend his afternoon doing satellite interviews with local Iowa television stations - as well as WMUR, the only local television in New Hampshire.  The campaign has told us that Senator Obama will watch the caucus returns at his West Des Moines hotel with his family, before heading over to his caucus night rally, which is being held in a large auditorium at the Des Moines Hyvee Center.

David Axelrod, his senior advisor just walked past a few of us in the Obama traveling press corps, who have taken over the lobby of the Holiday Inn where we stayed last night. He appeared relaxed and assured - and assured us that he was both.

Obama will take the stage tonight at 10pm and address his supporters. Following the rally and 45 minutes of file time, we will make the long, late journey to New Hamphsire. So long, Des Moines.

Sen Clinton stopped by her Des Moines canvassing HQ one day before the caucuses to drop off some early morning sustenance and provide a morale boost to the dozens of activists who would be walking the streets and knocking on doors all day in the freezing cold — and to simply say thank you for their support over the last few months. Her final push included rallies in Davenport, Ottumwa, and Cedar Rapids, but with the polls too close to call it’s the folks knocking on doors and driving supporters to the caucuses that could win it for any of the three top Democrats here.

For the past 36 nonstop hours, Democratic candidate John Edwards barnstormed around the state of Iowa in his final sprint before the Iowa caucuses. For each hour during Edwards’ “Marathon for the Middle Class,” he discussed one specific policy initiative—a total of 36 steps he’ll take to strengthen the middle class if elected President.

As he visited 15 Iowa counties in the wee hours of the night, Edwards stopped at the homes of local supporters to speak out for the working middle class and boost his campaign’s momentum. He was accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth, and oldest daughter, Cate.

12:30 AM—Atlantic, Iowa

2:30 AM—Creston, Iowa

So what was it like to spend 36 straight hours with the Senator? In our 29th hour, Edwards surprised the entire press corps when he hopped on board our bus to hand out cups of coffee to reporters. He poked fun at some of us for looking tired (a remark he later joked he would regret). Not a coffee drinker, he said he was fueling himself with Sprite.

Edwards’ marathon campaign run climaxed in its 36th hour at a concert featuring singer-songwriter, John Mellencamp, in West Des Moines.