Barack Obama 2008

There are 28 days left counting down to the early states for Barack Obama in 2008. Here is the schedule:

Iowa -- Jan 3, 2008
New Hampshire -- Jan 8, 2008
Nevada -- Jan 19, 2008
South Carolina -- Jan 26, 2008

Although the Obama campaign is definitely gaining momentum, I still think it is too early to get overly excited.

With a lot of the important ground campaign scheduled over the holidays, many people might still tune out political-type messages. Still, we can see by the big crowds for the Oprah-Obama events, it's still possible to get people excited with a little celebrity action!

The Obama camp does not want people going to the caucus or ballot box without doing their homework. That would likely benefit the candidate with the most name ID i.e., Hillary Clinton. I would not be surprised if many people don't start really tuning in until after New Year's Day.

That means the last few days will be very important, as they usually are, in reaching those barely-concerned voters, which unfortunately still make up a substantial portion of the electorate.