With the exception of Edwards, Romney and Giuliani, every presidential candidate is in Iowa today, including, curiously, John McCain, who's holding a town hall meeting at the School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs. Tomorrow night, reports the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier, McCain will be hosting a house party in Cedar Falls -- his first stop in this part of the state since September.

Does this signal a change of heart in the McCain campaign, which hasn't put much stock in Iowa? The campaign received some encouraging news over the holiday with an American Research Poll showing McCain just six points behind frontrunner Huckabee. But the poll is an outlier and McCain's RCP Iowa average is still almost 20 points behind Huckabee and 15 behind Romney.

Still, a strong third-place finish for McCain in Iowa, say within 10 points of the leader, would be something of a victory, certainly when one calculates the all-important expectations game. It might just give McCain the boost he needs going into New Hampshire.

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