Raucous caucus: Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby polls it as Kerry: 25%, Dean: 22%, Edwards: 21% and Gephardt: 18% Undecided: 9%. Meanwhile, Kucinich and Edwards have agreed that if either looks to get less than 15%, they will throw their votes to the other. Dean, in a shameless Clinton 1992 ripoff, is calling himself the "ultimate comeback kid." How silly: Dean has faced none of the adversity Clinton faced in the days leading up to New Hampshire in 1992. All that has happened to Dean is that the Iowa voters are recognizing that (a) he is unlikely, at best, to win a general election against Bush, and (b) the one candidate in a realistic position to take some of the South is Edwards. This, of course, is why Edwards is surging. In fact, if any one candidate resembles the Clinton 1992 model, it would be Edwards, with his modest background and his geographic advantages.

In related news, Kerry is practicing from the get negative and then apologize school. I cry foul -- you can't have your cake and eat it too. By the way, anybody else think that Kerry is looking more and more like a basset hound?

Not to toot my own horn [you are anyway! -- ed.], I modestly note that I was an early booster of Edwards.

UPDATE: Dean apparently is desparate. His wife, who previously had better things to do, came "halfway across the country" to kiss him publicly. Sounds to me like Howard thinks Iowa is off the beaten path. NOT the way to encourage voters....