Obama campaign headquarters to be in Chicago?

By Lynn Sweet for the Chicago Sun-Times

Watch for Sen. Barack Obama to headquarter his anticipated 2008 presidential campaign in Chicago - and leverage that to the hilt in the critical first vote in neighboring Iowa.

Locating his political operation in Chicago will let his campaign mobilize thousands of lllinois Democrats to help in Iowa.

The 2008 Democratic calendar is not finalized; many states want to hold early primaries to influence the selection of the nominee and erode the power of Iowa and New Hampshire in the selection process.

Still, the basic outlines are in place. Iowa and New Hampshire - states traditionally crucial because they were the first votes - will be joined in January 2008 by Nevada and South Carolina.

Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, has decided to run. He has said he will announce his decision in January.

Under the tentative new schedule, the Iowa caucus will be Jan. 14, followed by Nevada on Jan. 19, New Hampshire on Jan. 22 and South Carolina on Jan. 29.

Presidential contenders, however, ignore Iowa and New Hampshire at their peril in 2008. That's why former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), who will announce his presidential bid -- his second - this week from New Orleans, has been making regular pilgrimages to Iowa. And that's why Obama did some barnstorming in New Hampshire on Dec. 10.

Three-way Iowa race

It has been ages since Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has been to either Iowa or New Hampshire, and a new poll shows that Clinton, nationally the front-runner, faces an Iowa fight.

While much of the 2008 Democratic presidential storyline so far portrays the contest as increasingly a two-person race, Edwards is a strong factor in Iowa, where Clinton support is slipping.

A poll of likely Iowa voters shows a dead heat - 22 percent each - between Edwards and Obama for the 2008 caucuses. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, another White House contender and obviously well-known in the state, came in at 12 percent, with Clinton at 10 percent.

The poll of 600 likely voters could swing four points either way.

Obama's N.H. surge

A new poll by the Concord Monitor taken last week showed that Obama's New Hampshire visit - which generated massive coverage in the state - had an impact.

Granite State Democrats put Obama in a statistical tie with Clinton. That's a switch from a poll last month by the newspaper in which Obama was behind by 23 points.