The Note: It's Never Too Early, Part 101

— -- WASHINGTON, Jan. 29

Remind us again why there is something wrong with the country taking its time over about a year to consider its choices for the biggest job on the planet.

If you are bored, turn away.

But please don't think that because of some shifts in the calendar or the (compared to some, but not all cycles) early start that the campaigns and candidates are any more focused on fundraising than they were in the past. Ask Lamar Alexander, Tom Harkin, Bob Dole, Phil Gramm, Bob Graham, John Kasich, Joe Lieberman, or pretty much anyone not named "Forbes" who has ever run how much time they had to spend on fundraising, back in the Golden Years of yesteryore, before all these horrible changes.

And if you can bear to pay attention, you can learn a lot.

For instance, just in the last 72 hours, we learned it is never too early:

-- to understand that Hillary Clinton is the front-runner not just because she can raise the most money and is famous, but also because she has become the most experienced presidential-level politician in the race. (Only those who have closely watched her over the years -- and did hard labor with her, listening to looped talk about "the children and the families" in Upstate New York in 2000 -- can really explain the evolution to you, so make sure you read Adam Nagourney's New York Times take. LINK

And the conventions of journalism only allow Nagourney to hint at the reality: the headlines about the Clinton botched joke obscure how formidable -- relaxed, funny, tough, pleasant -- she has become on the stump.)

-- to take David Yepsen for shakes and fries at the Drake Diner (and then talk about it in your stump speech, as Hillary Clinton deftly did this weekend).

-- to acknowledge that as long as Iraq is Iraq, the Democratic Nominee for President in 2008 is favored over the Republican Nominee for President in 2008, making Hillary Clinton, as a snapshot right now, the most likely person to be the Next President of the United States.

-- to try and figure out the rank order of cash raised from January 1 through March 31 of Clinton, Edwards, Giuliani, McCain, Obama, and Romney.

-- to realize that Iowa is wide open for both the Democrats and the Republicans and both contests are going to be fought out on the ground the old fashioned way.

-- and/but to realize also that every major (and minor) candidate in the race (except maybe Tom Vilsack) thinks the path to victory involves bringing "new people" into the caucus process. (Good luck with that.)

-- to wonder which presidential candidates, beneath the radar, are most willing to spend their time when they are NOT in Iowa and New Hampshire, doing phone time making calls to unaffiliated Pooh-Bahs who live in Iowa and New Hampshire.

-- to try and figure out the rank order of cash raised from January 1 through March 31 of Clinton, Edwards, Giuliani, McCain, Obama, and Romney.

-- to Note that Rudy Giuliani clearly does not intend to take on the "big tent" fight at every key public appearance -- at least not yet.

-- to ask why the press simultaneously bemoans how "early" all this activity is taking place, and then does stuff like have most every major paper in the country over the weekend publish detailed, heavily reported stories about the semiotic meaning of Barack Obama's law school days. (Only the Los Angeles Times -- so far -- has done the Occidental years LINK.)

-- for the New York Times to quaintly think that it can shine the disinfection of light onto the dynamics of the right-wing Freak Show (as in the Obama/madrassa-Clinton/oppo-machine Insight story) by writing front-page stories about it. (Although today's effort is must-read and hilarious. LINK)

-- to determine that the press doesn't really plan to hold Democratic presidential candidates accountable for making wild statements that might tie the hand of the commander in chief during wartime -- the way that just might happen if Republican candidates were saying comparable things about a Democratic president.

-- to try and figure out the rank order of cash raised from January 1 through March 31 of Clinton, Edwards, Giuliani, McCain, Obama, and Romney.

-- for the smarter political scribes to write columns premised on the Notion that there are too many unknowns to make sensible definitive statements about the presidential contests -- and then write columns with oodles of speculations anyway (!). (Newsweek likes this dynamic so much that they let Jon Alter LINK and Anna Quindlen LINK do it in the same issue this week.)

-- for the New York Times to write editorials about 2008 that all but call for the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy to co-chair the Iowa caucuses, with jaw-dropping sentences such as this: "The problem with the 23-month campaign is not just the fatigue it will inspire, but the effect on democracy. Bundlers -- master fund-raisers who package individual contributions into big ones -- will have even more power…. Congress should fix the broken public financing system, which has not been significantly updated since it was adopted in 1974. ...We will never return to the time when presidential campaigns unfolded handshake by handshake in New Hampshire -- and we shouldn't -- but Congress and the national parties can set a more thoughtful 21st-century pace." LINK

-- for the Gang of 500 to make the judgment, again and still and over and over, that the war in Iraq and the Bush presidency are effectively over. (The latest "evidence": the Newsweek poll numbers and this New York Post headline: "BUSH HITS IRAQ BOTTOM: AMONG LEAST-POPULAR PRESIDENTS OF ALL TIME AS WAR TAKES TOLL IN POLL.")

-- to try and figure out the rank order of cash raised from January 1 through March 31 of Clinton, Edwards, Giuliani, McCain, Obama, and Romney.

Two of those six candidates, Sen. McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Clinton (D-NY), share a national security stage today at noon ET in San Antonio, TX for the dedication ceremony for "The Center for the Intrepid," a rehabilitation facility for wounded members of the military. LINK

Sen. McCain's briefing memo on the event likely says, "Remember: when you are in public, you are not supposed to demonstrate that you like Sen. Clinton. There are Romney trackers EVERYWHERE."

The immunized former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer is scheduled to testify in the Scooter Libby trial today in Washington, DC, after a Cathie Martin return engagement.

Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) intends to file papers to set up a presidential exploratory committee today with the FEC.

Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) delivers the keynote address at the Aiken Rotary Club meeting at the Aiken Municipal Conference Center in Aiken, SC at 12:40 pm ET. Later today, Gov. Romney announces endorsements from Charleston area leaders at the Coen Capital in Mt. Pleasant, SC at 5:00 pm ET.

And be sure to check out ABC News' Terry Moran's interview with Gov. Romney tonight on Nightline at 11:35 pm ET.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) joins his Senate Homeland Security Committee colleagues for field hearings on "Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Outstanding Need, Slow Progress" starting at 10:00 am ET at the Louisiana Supreme Court Building in New Orleans, LA. At 1:15 pm ET, the senators will take a bus tour of devastated areas.

According to his prepared remarks, Sen. Obama is expected to say, "In the weeks after Katrina, an ashamed nation looked at what had been allowed to happen here and said 'Never again. Never will we turn our backs on these people. Never will we forget what happened here.' The President came down and said, 'We will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives.'

"Just eighteen months later, we heard not one word -- not one word -- in the President's State of the Union address about New Orleans. And so I have one more set of questions to ask today: 'Are we willing to do whatever it takes? To stay as long as it takes? Are we in danger of forgetting about New Orleans?'"

President Bush holds a meeting with the (supportive and friendly) members of "Securing America's Future Energy" in the Roosevelt Room at 2:45 pm ET and is expected to make remarks to the pool at the bottom of the meeting. LINK

The President also interviews with NPR's Juan Williams today. You can listen for excerpts throughout the day and a complete report at 4:00 pm ET on "All Things Considered." LINK

White House press secretary Tony Snow gaggles off camera at 10:00 am ET and briefs on camera at 1:00 pm ET.

Christie Vilsack, Iowa's former First Lady, speaks to the Spartanburg County Democrats at 5:30 pm ET at the Wild Wing Café in Spartanburg, SC.

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) was scheduled to outline his ideas for No Child Left Behind reauthorization at 9:45 am ET at the National School Boards Association gathering in Washington, DC. Secretary Spellings is scheduled to address the group at 2:45 pm ET on the same topic.

Republican Senate Conference Chairman Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) speaks on the implications of China's recent test of an anti-satellite weapon at noon ET at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC.

2008: Democrats: Clinton's Iowa campaign swing:
Bottom line: she impressed Glover, Beaumont, Yepsen, and many voters, and/but she still has to come back a lot and win over enough people to finish, uhm, where frontrunners need to finish. Oh, and the Freak Show is alive and well, but she kept it at bay for a full 35 hours.

ABC News' Jake Tapper called Sen. Clinton "sharply critical" of President Bush on Iraq in his weekend wrap for Good Morning America.

The AP's Mike Glover reports that Sen. Clinton said Sunday that President Bush "has made a mess of Iraq and it is his responsibility to 'extricate' the United States from the situation before he leaves office." LINK

"Clinton lets personality show during Iowa visit," reports the Des Moines Register's Tom Beaumont. LINK