Following up on the post below, the Following up on the post below, the John Edwards campaign brags that its guy has been to all 99 counties—twice, in fact: once this cycle and also in 2004. Apparently, Hillary Clinton has only been in about 60 counties. A Barack Obama staffers says their guy has visited 73 counties, and if Michele Obama is counted the number rises to the high 80s or low 90s. Edwards campaign manager David Bonior told me Wednesday afternoon that he thinks Hillary will pay the price for too much concentration in the central and eastern portions of the state. Some of the missed counties are surely among the least-populous ones, so touching all the bases isn't everything. (Remember Richard Nixon promising to hit all 50 states in 1960, then losing to JFK?) But, obviously, in a state where the candidate-voter intimacy is so important to many of Iowa’s spoiled caucus-goers, missing their home county could mean losing their support, so while hitting fewer counties may not be worse it’s hard to see how it is better. --Tom Schaller
