Cross-posted from the blog in case anyone in the Eastern Iowa region wants to come down for the afternoon. 

Rep. Polly Bukta's annual corn boil, which is always the political event of the summer in Clinton County, will be even more of a must-attend this year.  She has wrapped up Sens. Clinton, Biden and Dodd as well as John Edwards.  Sen. Obama has promised “a major surrogate,” but not himself.  Hopefully, the Obama campaign will send out the Senator's wife who is supposed to be a rather compelling person and speaker in her own right.

In addition to the presidential candidates, most of the regional statewide office holders will be in attendance.  Congressman Bruce Braley will also be there.  

All in all, a fine day to eat some food and pigeonhole your elected officials about whatever is on your mind.

The event has become so large that is has moved from Rep. Bukta's home to Alliant Energy Field.  Noon to 4 p.m.  $10 gets you some corn and a bevvy.  The ball park will be serving its usual fare at the concession stands. No reservations required. Children 12 and under are free.

Andrew Sullivan is a conservative whose ideals I admire even if I don't always agree with.  Clearly against the extreme lunatic wing of the Republican party, his libertarian streak keeps him from thoroughly embracing the Democrats, who if one looks only at his biography, one could be excused for thinking are his natural affinity group.  But no,  Sullivan is pretty clear-headed, cold-eyed traditional conservative in the best, pre-1968 sense of that word.

So, when he attends an Obama event in DC and comes away saying the man is the Reagan of the Left, it is time to take notice.

Excerpts after the jump. 

I posted the latest installment on “How the Iowa caucuses work” at Daily Kos and MyDD today. I’m not cross-posting here because you people all know how the caucuses work.

My main reason for writing that diary was to debunk Mark Kleiman’s idea that Obama could win Iowa by hiring 2,000 field organizers to work here during the final two weeks of the campaign.

If you feel like joining the discussion about GOTV and how hard it is to turn out new voters for the caucuses, head on over to MyDD, where the diary is on the rec list.

She will finish fourth in the Iowa caucuses.

I used to think the top three would be Edwards, Obama and Vilsack in some order. I now think there is an opening for Richardson to finish in the top three if he makes a serious play for Iowa.

I have been saying this at MyDD and elsewhere and getting laughed at by some who follow the polls, but no one (myself included) thought Gephardt would finish fourth either. Follow me after the jump for the short version of my reasoning.

Zogby released new Iowa and New Hampshire polls today. The results are being discussed here and here.

In Iowa, Zogby has Clinton and Edwards at 24 percent, Obama at 18 percent, and Vilsack with 9 percent.

I am skeptical and I’ll tell you why below the fold.