Take heart…

…listen to Jerome.

[R]egarding the status of Edwards, I wouldn't listen to either the "dean" of the Iowa press, or the Obama's camp spin, for that matter.

There's been some ado about some doom and gloom Iowa journalist David Yepsen was spreading via FOX News, but unless he's got some exclusive evidence of decay in Edwards' highly regarded precinct organization, ultimately more important than any list of endorsements or barrage of broadcast ads in a caucus environment, I don't know quite what he's talking about, and Edwards himself offers reassurance...

When I ask Edwards if he's concerned about signs of slippage in Iowa, he literally laughs in my face. "We have 99 county chairs and about 75 percent of the precincts covered with precinct chairs," he says. "I know how to run a caucus campaign in Iowa--and so do the people who work for me."

I believe that. I have doubts, though, about Yepsen's notion that an Edwards stumble would accrue to the benefit of Governor Richardson, as well. Nothing about Richardson's campaign, save perhaps his aggressive, if not entirely realistic, timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq, has offered any reason for voters attracted by Edwards' populist stance to make the Governor their second choice, and caucus success is all about second choices. For some of us, Richardson's foolishly pandering support for a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution is simply a deal killer, since it's probably the least progressive, and perhaps the least intelligent, proposal from any Democratic campaign.

There's going to be a lot of this in the next few weeks. All the candidates will be declared to be making a move or dying on the vine at some point. Most of it's just moving wind and pouring ink to sell advertising. The best advice, of course, is to keep working and above all…