The Des Moines newspaper endorses Hillary and the Boston Globe says its for O'Bama, so we have ourselves an early split, and I think a harbinger of how close this race is going to be.....comments or thoughts?

This race is getting very interesting. Clinton was the frontrunner for so long but as we approach the first caucuses its so tight. All of the political talking heads agree that the voters are more interested in change this time around than experience. Hillary is walking a very slippery slope in terms of how much she can attack Obama. Her likeability is still her biggest weakness, yet she needs to show herself as strong. So, its as if she is walking a tight rope on how nice she can be and how much she can attack her opponents. Iowa and New Hampshire are very close. Political strategists still say that Republicans want most to run against Hillary because that will rally the Republican base. Thats my biggest worry with both Hillary and Obama. Can they win the national election or will it stir up people who don't want to see a woman or a black man in the office of the President of the United States?

This is definitely getting tight down the stretch and I'm glad that Barack is on Hillary's heels. On the Chris Matthews show today they aired a clip from one of my favorite movies, Election (starring Reese Witherspoon). Witherspoon plays the experienced student who believes she has the school's presidential election. Then, along comes a popular jock to steal the show. I recommend that movie to anyone who hasn't seen it. To me it pretty much is a race between Obama and Hillary. John Edwards is a distant third and the rest can just forget about it. Its going to be interesting to see if Obama actually wins Iowa. Polls are one thing but what will people actually do when they vote in the caucus. I have to admit though...its great seeing Hillary and her team sweat. She needs to be careful though not to start making campaign errors like the one her campaign staffer made in his cocaine comments against Obama. Andrew Sullivan on The Chris Matthews show earlier said that Bill Clinton was given a pass on his whole marijuana "didn't inhale" incident. Hillary has a good deal of African American support and Sullivan said if she is seen as going after a black man on this issue, it could be dangerous. He said many South Carolina African Americans whose support she had much more of than Obama just a few months ago, are going over to Obama's side because of the cocaine incident. I'm still up in the air regarding which one of them I would vote for. There are qualities in both candidates I like, and qualities I don't like. If Obama can pull Iowa out, it would be huge momentum given that New Hampshire has gotten tight as well.

I think it would be interesting for Edwards to pull off an upset and deny either Clinton or Obama a landslide (say something more than that 4-5 % margin-of-error used for most polls, for instance).

I think if any of the three come out of this race with less than a 5% margin over the second candidate it will maintain interest and keep more candidates in the field.

Beyond that I would consider it a Clinton disadvantage just to have the sum of the voters for Edwards and Obama be more than the votes for her. That would represent a potential anti-Hillary vote that would work to the advantage of either Obama or Edwards in the case that one of the two should drop out before the Dems convention - an unlikely scenario I'll admit.

None of the other candidates have the "superstar" quality of the top three, but I hope Kucinich and Dodd stick around a while just because they are really good on issues I care about: the economy and the Iraq War, and will help keep debate over those two from being overshadowed by political in-fighting over who went to a madrassa kindergarten/elementary school or was married to another president in the 90s.

Not to get off subject, but I just can't see Edwards as either the Dem nominee or as president. I just can't get past the impression I have that he's all stand and model.

Personally, I want Obama to fight on and was glad to see this morning's Globe endorsement. There's something about Obama -- like some aura of destiny about him -- that makes him appealing, almost like a JFK for the 2000's. I have no doubt that I would rail against some of his more liberal policies, but he's so bloody smart and personable, I almost can't help but want him to win. I think he'd be a great uniter after so many years of partisan sniping.

Hillary... yeesh!