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The television ads continue, and the candidates are taking it to President Bush on the economy, but with varying degrees of success. Below, my reviews of the recent TV offerings by Edwards, Gephardt, and Kerry, with suggestions for improvement.

John Edwards is a frequent advertiser on the evening news in Eastern Iowa. His current ad, shot with the cinema verite hand-held camera style, shows Sen. Edwards addressing a room of people (a very multicultural group, and one that hits all age demographics, too). Edwards begins with "It is outrageous that this president has turned a five trillion dollar surplus into a five trillion dollar deficit," and then notes that the nation doesn't have money to address important concerns like college education and health care because Bush gave a huge tax cut to the richest people in America. "We need a president that will stand up for the working people in America," he concludes, to this group's smiles and applause.

The big news today, as reported in the Des Moines Register, is that the Democratic presidential candidates have discovered Iowa extends west beyond Des Moines and all the way to the Missouri River.

Republicans hold a huge registration edge in the western third of the state, so Democrats in recent campaigns "gave scant attention" to the territory that is "more sparsely populated and more heavily Republican than other parts of Iowa," the Register notes.

The race to the finish is closing fast. Well at least the end of this quarter of fundraising closes on Tuesday. It looks like Howard Dean will not only be the top dog in the polls but his Internet fundraising will catapult him to the top of the fundraising heap.

The real question of the fundraising will not be Kerry, Dean or even Clark. The real question will be what can the rest of the field do.