DES MOINES — After a pause for Christmas, presidential contenders resume their blitz across Iowa today, scraping and scuffling in contests that have grown tighter and more unpredictable as the first balloting of 2008 nears.
On the Democratic side, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina are running neck and neck and neck, with the rest of the field fighting to squeeze past one of them to finish third.
Among Republicans, former Govs. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts are battling it out, while the race for third is a toss-up among several contenders.
The closeness of the state's caucus contests increases the import of these final days -- and any verbal misstep, breakthrough TV ads or crystallizing moment on the campaign trail -- in what already have been exceptionally fluid races. Iowans will caucus on Jan. 3.
"We've never had anything like this," said David R. Nagle, a former congressman and past chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, who has been tracking the caucuses since they gained national attention in 1972. "If you can find a three-headed coin, flip it. That's about the best projection I can give you."
While the approach of Christmas kept the candidates on relatively good behavior, especially in their warm-and-fuzzy TV spots, few expected their reluctance to attack to last.
"It's probably going to be harder for them to restrain themselves," said Peverill Squire, professor of political science at the University of Iowa. "They'll be trying to draw more comparisons and contrasts among themselves."
With just eight full days of campaigning left, Christmas amounted to little more than an extended dinner break for many of the White House candidates and their harried staffers.
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who has taken up temporary residence in Des Moines, had the state to himself and spent part of the day ice-skating with his family and members of his campaign team.
But his monopoly ends this morning.
Clinton and her husband, former President Clinton, will join former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and his wife, Christie, in the Vilsacks' hometown in the southeast part of the state before the Clintons part ways to stump separately. Another Democrat, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, begins his day in southwest Iowa, while Obama threads his way through the north. And Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware plans a rally tonight in Des Moines.
