Yesterday J.P. Green discussed the dilemma facing Democrats in Florida and Michigan over their decision to bend the knee to the DNC-ordained nominating contest calendar, or risk losing delegates at the next convention.

But on the broader issue of where candidates are actually spending their time, the FL/MI challenge to the IA/NH Duopoly has already failed, and not just because (on the Democratic side, at least) candidates recently agreed to boycott the two rebellious states.

As Chris Bowers at OpenLeft explained over the weekend, using the Washington Post's useful "Campaign Tracker" map, candidates for president in both parties have "made more trips to Iowa and New Hampshire, a combined 1,811, than [to] every other state and territory combined." And many of the trips to other states (especially California) are simply for fundraisers, not public events.

It appears all the Democratic candidates are calculating that the impact of IA and NH on later states makes any post-NH strategy simply too risky. And the Republicans who have given the Duopoly less than full attention--namely Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson--are clearly playing with fire.