Full Swing In Iowa

Four Democrats, Three Republican Presidential Hopefuls In Town, With 18 Months To Go

(CBS)  While the focus in Iowa this week has been on a certain political couple, on this Fourth of July, Hillary and Bill Clinton are not the only show in town, CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports.

Democrat Barack Obama is here for some front-porch campaigning — one of four Democrats and three Republicans in what’s today’s campaign capital of the United States. So is Republican Mitt Romney. Iowa is where you’ll find second-tier Republican Sam Brownback, and Democrats Joe Biden and Chris Dodd.

In fact, at times it looks like Fourth of July anywhere. Neighbors bumping into each other at a parade — only these neighbors are jockeying to be leader of the free world.

Why so busy here?

In six months Iowans hold their caucuses, the first votes cast in the process to elect the next president of the United States. For the first time in more than half a century, there’s no incumbent president or vice president running in either party — it’s wide open.

“I don’t recall a time when we’ve seen this many candidates in Iowa over the Fourth of July," political analyst David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register told Axelrod.

Other states may move their dates up, but Iowa’s still first. The place where longshots can pick up momentum and front-runners can implode.

“Everything is bigger, it starts earlier, there are more candidates, there’s more money, there’s more staff, its just more of everything,” Yepsen said. “And its kind of fun.”

Fun for that reporter, maybe. For the candidates, it’s serious stuff, even when it looks like you’re just having a little ice cream on the Fourth of July.