Campaigns Slow to a Trickle on Final Day

DES MOINES—In the excruciating final hours before caucus doors open across the state, most of the candidates have gone quiet, save for a negative ad or two.

The daily flood of tit-for-tat campaign E-mails has slowed to a trickle. And members of the media horde have been printing out boarding passes for Friday flights to New Hampshire, and placing bets on winners and losers.

But the void must be filled. And isn't that what rumors are for? Lacking exit polls to analyze and lines of voters to interview—the caucuses don't start until 7 p.m.—and with tossup races on both sides, there has been plenty of blogger-friendly fodder:

• Reports that Republican Fred Thompson will ditch his campaign if he does poorly tonight and throw his (somewhat meager) support to John McCain.
• Democrat Joe Biden reputedly in (hotly denied) vote-trading discussions with Barack Obama.
• Supporters (and one famous spouse) of Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney, the former front-runners, lowering expectations.

Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat John Edwards were the only top contenders to embark on bona fide campaign tours today. For the others, last night was the time to close the deal with Iowa voters, thousands of whom turned out to see the increasingly hoarse candidates in events across this city.

And even at this late hour, voters were still struggling with their decision.

"I'm looking for honesty," said undecided voter Pat Auman, 67, of Center Point, at an Obama event late yesterday. "Our whole country is in such a mess—it's just scary."

So, what will the Iowa voters serve up to the country tonight? How will the political table be set just five days before the New Hampshire primary?

Polls show that state Democrats are most interested in a candidate who can bring about change and unify the country. That is the sweet spot of Obama's message, though Clinton has been struggling to portray herself as an experienced change agent. Who wins with those voters?

Edwards has always insisted he knows how to win in Iowa and his success hinges on his wooing of voters in rural precincts, which, under the state party's caucus formula, enjoy disproportionate influence. Will his strategy succeed?

Romney has bought the best organization possible, sinking more than $17 million of his own money into his presidential run so far. But Huckabee has tapped into the potent but largely behind-the-scenes evangelical community here. Will the man "Endorsed by God," as one yard sign here read, get enough support to override moderate Iowa Republicans worried that a Huckabee win would embarrass the state and that he would lose quickly in New Hampshire, a much more secular state where independent voters hold sway and are unlikely to flock to the Baptist preacher?

Those answers are only hours away. And in the meantime, there's still time to parse Huckabee's guitar playing on Jay Leno's Tonight Show last night and to ponder the ultimate meaning of the Iowa caucuses this year. Wait—that's tomorrow's story. Stay tuned.