A couple of interesting morning reads focus on the Democratic presidential field. The Washington Post, as part of its occasional "Gurus" series, has a feature by Chris Cillizza on Edwards consultant Joe Trippi, with a rather provocative title: "The Dean-ing of Edwards." The main point of the piece is that Trippi's influence is attributable to a kindred-spirits relationship he enjoys with Elizabeth Edwards.

And over at the Wall Street Journal, an article billed as being about the hope dark horses draw from the retail politics of Iowa turns out to focus almost exclusively on Joe Biden, though it does mention that Chris Dodd recently moved his family to the state.

Oddly, enough, the piece doesn't mention one of Biden's hidden advantages: he campaigned in Iowa in 1988, before his candidacy folded due to a plagiarism flap. Too bad for him he didn't retain two of his 1988 Iowa supporters: former governor Tom Vilsack and his wife, Christie, who are key cogs in Hillary Clinton's Iowa campaign this year.