I made it for a deep freeze phase in Iowa and survived a wave of media folk at the airport that included by my own modest count, a camera crew from Japan (I wonder how caucus nuances translates to Japanese), camera crews from three West Coast stations, Germany and a print reporter from the Southern USA who was brave enough to ask me for directions in Des Moines.
While the big story today here is the final poll by the Des Moines Register (the official Iowa caucus paper of record) that showed GOPer Mike Huckabee and Dem Barack Obama in a final pre-caucus poll or it could been a pack bage story noting that Hillary Clinton hasn't been much in the mood to take questions at campaign events (only three out of the 24 post-Christmas events has she taken audience questions: Clinton said it was hard by the end of the day to do so many Q&As and she preferred one on one encounters), I was interested in the real story I read in the Register which admirably leaves no caucus stone unturned.
The BABY story. I mean a real seven-week old baby named William Joseph McNarney of Virginia who during a Christmas visit with the grandparents managed to get schmoozed by a bipartisan photo op squad of eight presidential candidates -- and former President Bill Clinton. As his father Michael told the Register "they're on every street corner." Babies and candidates, it seems.
In my first daily link of the New Year, Walter Shapiro of Salon follows Obama in Iowa and wonders what's behind the rhetoric of inspiration.
So far I haven't felt inundated by television ads but then I've only seen seven in less than 35 minutes.
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