Presidential Candidates

In the last days before Thursday's Iowa caucuses, Mike Huckabee, lacking money and staff, is adopting a freewheeling and inexpensive strategy of asymmetrical political warfare -- inviting reporters to a pheasant hunt, a morning jog and a haircut -- to needle his better-funded, better-organized challenger, Mitt Romney.

It's not just Mike Huckabee's top rival in the Republican race who is responsible for attack ads that have damaged his candidacy in the closing days of the Iowa campaign. Huckabee has been the target of a $550,000 campaign waged by the conservative anti-tax Club for Growth. An Arkansas man who is responsible for a separate low-budget hit vowed Monday to take his anti-Huckabee campaign to South Carolina, which holds its GOP primary Jan. 19.

The top three Democratic presidential candidates have begun focusing intensely on becoming the second choice among supporters of less-popular candidates such as Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, in a behind-the-scenes battle that could decide the outcome of Thursday's Iowa caucuses.

Barack Obama's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination might have gained a slight advantage Tuesday with Ohio Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich's recommendation to his supporters to back the Illinois senator if there is insufficient support for Kucinich in individual precincts. While Kucinich's support is slight here, polls show a statistical tie for first among Obama, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

Fred Adams, a retired Drake University history professor, wandered across the street from his house for a neighborhood party the Sunday before Christmas -- 5-8 p.m., food and drinks -- where he spotted Tammy Gentry. "I saw my opportunity," Adams said later, "and I took it." Adams knew Gentry was leaning toward former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina in Thursday's first-in-the-nation caucuses. But her husband, Brian, was backing Sen.

A presidential election is a conversation about the nation's future, but all Richard Brenner was hearing in Van Nuys were fragments, disconnected bits and pieces. He wanted more. He yearned for a lively discussion, some policy, a vision. While presidential candidates swarmed through early primary and caucus states such as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina in the nominating process, they often ignored California.

This can't be a joke because there's a writers strike on and jokes are out for the duration. So in all unscripted seriousness, I ask, could Hollywood really be smarter than Washington? Is it possible that movie people are savvier than political people? Amazing but ... yes! When it comes to its hallowed Oscar nominations, Hollywood sensibly waits until a whole year's worth of eligible films has been released before it chooses the nominees for the Academy Award for best picture.

The Iowa caucuses apparently did not outrank shut-eye for President Bush. Asked if the president planned to stay up to find out who won the opening contests of the 2008 election season, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Thursday: "What time do all the results start coming in? Because he goes to bed early." Later, Perino said Bush planned to watch a bit of the returns but would not stay tuned for the accompanying political punditry.

Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee swept to victory Thursday night in the Iowa caucuses, dispatching their more established rivals and shredding any sense of inevitability in the 2008 presidential race. The results were a serious setback for Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, who finished a close third behind John Edwards, and for Republican Mitt Romney, who finished second in his race.

The Republicans gathered upstairs, the Democrats downstairs, and for more than an hour Thursday night, the enthusiasm gap between the two major parties could be measured by both numbers and sound volume inside the Central Community Church here. In all, 303 Democrats were jammed into an overheated basement meeting room that crackled with excitement, while the 198 Republicans who filled the first floor church were more subdued -- as if they were there for services, not for politics.