Good luck with the rest of the campaign!

Part of this is nostalgia for me.

In 1988, I talked my college newspaper into sending me to cover the Iowa caucuses, and it was one of the most amusing experiences of my life.

I got up-close to “future presidents” like Bruce Babbitt, Bob Dole, Pat Robertson, Paul Simon, etc., and saw how Iowa is a one-of-a-kind place where voters DEMAND to meet the candidates before they'll offer their support.

It's not just a cliche.  It's real.  The people in Iowa feel a certain, dare I say, entitlement to meet the candidates for themselves.  (Some don't like it when I use that term, but it came from an Iowan, not me.)

With Super-Duper Tuesday on Feb. 5, when California, Texas and all the other states create a sort of “nationalized” primary, Iowa could be MORE IMPORTANT than ever — at least for some candidates.  Or it could fizzle.

All I know is that 16 candidates were here during my first two weeks in Iowa.  So they must think this is the place to be.

Meanwhile, while they decide whom to include in the debate…I report while they decide.

At my blog last week, I wrote about one of the little-known hurdles Obama faces.

Here, he's building a potent youth movement.  But not only are many of the college students in his camp first-time voters, the ones from heavily-Democratic Johnson County (home to the University of Iowa) will be on winter break during the Jan. 14, 2008, caucuses.  (See the posting “Vacation vs. victory, dude).

He has more than young people in his camp here, but it's always tricky for any candidate building a movement based on people who might not be the usual party regulars.  I'm sure they'll be training their folks for the complicated caucus process, and we'll see how far it gets them here.

Good luck on the campaign trail. Don't let the national gaggle get in your way of covering stories for the Rocky. That's why God gave you elbows!

When I recall the name, I'll send it along to you. It's gonna be tough sledding for a vegetarian out in the Iowa boondocks.

Hope you like corn.

Early on, people pointed to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson who hoped to score a big win in Nevada as a way to vault him onto the national scene.  But where was Richardson last week: Denison, Pella, Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls and Des Moines, IOWA.

I reckon Richardson knows he can't wait until Nevada to make his big, western break-out.  So last week he became the first Democrat to put television ads on the Iowa and New Hampshire airwaves.

There's an organic, yuppie food mart 1 1/2 blocks from here.

And everyone tells me that those muddy fields I see everywhere will be filled with corn by this summer.

Certain well-financed front-runners could conceivably keep their momentum by finishing in the top two or three in Iowa, doing the same in New Hampshire, then holding on until the mega-expensive nationalized primary on Feb. 5.

For others, Iowa represents a place to get onto the radar — or else.

Edwards has the most at stake on the Democratic side, since he leads the Iowa polls for now, and a lower showing here would put his campaign on thinner ice.

Iowa still is remembered as the place that helped turn “Jimmy Who?” into President Jimmy Carter in 1976.  So even now, with a condensed primary/caucus schedule, “second-tier” candidates hope to beat expectations, vault onto the national radar, and stay on that radar for the few weeks between Jan. 14, 2008, and Super-Duper Tuesday, Feb. 5.

In the past, people with surprising showings in Iowa could try to build more momentum (and campaign warchests) more gradually.  That's not an option this year.  It remains to be seen whether someone might win a surprising victory in Iowa and New Hampshire and then have time to capitalize on free-media publicity going into Feb. 5.

Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada are all the candidates' favorite states right now.