* Take a look at these New Hampshire polling trend lines from Pollster.com…

You can click it for a larger image and more explanation, but you can easily see that while Clinton is ahead, her numbers are obviously trending downward and Obama’s are sharply rising. New Hampshire’s primary is next Tuesday, so it’s gonna be very, very tough for Clinton to stop Obama’s momentum before then. He’ll have several days of euphoric bounce which may last all five days. A negative attack from Clinton now would likely backfire, unless Obama does something bad to himself.

* One thing that is still hanging out there is the Tony Rezko situation…

A former fundraiser to Gov. Rod Blagojevich pleaded not guilty Thursday to new charges of loan fraud, as did a new defendant in the case.

Antoin “Tony” Rezko of Wilmette and Abdelhamid “Al” Chaib of LaGrange park appeared before U.S. District Judge James Zagel Thursday morning and pleaded not guilty to rigging the prices of pizza franchises to obtain higher bank loans.

But it’s more likely that Clinton will be able to use that in the run-up to Super-Duper Tuesday (February 5th) than next Tuesday. The trial won’t really get underway until after the February 5th voting is over, but if I was on the Clinton campaign I’d be plugging the Rezko trial into this developing media meme of “Obama is untested.” There’s already plenty out there to tease the national reporters.

* The on-site national press corps was all atwitter yesterday with rumors that various candidates were cutting deals with Obama’s campaign to throw their caucus-goers to him. If a candidate doesn’t attain 15 percent in a caucus, that person’s supporters are supposed to choose someone else. Turns out, the deal talk was false…

According to the entrance poll, which only measured first preferences of the participants going in, the numbers were: Obama 35%, Hillary 27%, Edwards 23%.

If we assume that the final state delegate numbers actually approximated the votes of the caucus participants, this means John Edwards was the big second-choice winner, as he boosted his final score by seven points, compared to only three points for Obama and two for Hillary. It was enough to just overtake Hillary for second place, but not enough for first — because it turned out that Obama entered as the clear winner from first choices alone.

* The goofiest lede from Iowa was in the New York Times…

Whether it was because Iowans were searching for an agent of change or they wanted to send a message that a white state would elect a candidate regardless of race, Senator Barack Obama seized victory here Thursday as a coalition of Democrats and independents flooded caucuses in all corners of the state to support his improbable candidacy.

Apparently, some editor belatedly noticed the ridiculous lede and forced a change on the NYT website.

* On to Huckabee for a moment.

National Republicans obviously don’t like the man. He’s neither a neocon nor a corporate conservative, so the establishment party is scared to death about what he’ll do if he’s elected. Plus, most of them picked their own candidate long before Huckabee began to surge, and nobody picked him. So, he’s not their guy on every level.

But that’s no excuse for the national media, which treats the guy like an ignorant hillbilly from the backwoods and has appeared to use almost every excuse imaginable to pile on, and that has clouded their judgement, which is never great to begin with.

Check out this recent post from TIME magazine’s Joe Klein, entitled “Huckabust“…

Just when you think the Republican presidential race can’t get weirder…Mike Huckabee holds a press conference here to announce that he’d just made a last minute decision not to air a negative TV ad slamming Romney.

And then he airs the ad (Video courtesy of Mark Halperin who was setting in the row behund me). For the press corps–a gazillion cameras, nearly a hundred reporters, certainly more than Huckabee has ever seen in one place in his life. […]

That sound you hear rumbling out of Des Moines appears to be a monumental implosion. [emphasis added]

Yeah, that happened.

Human beings tend to look down on anyone who isn’t from what they consider to be the “better” place to live. New Yorkers, particularly, are infamous for this, but all of us do it in one way or another.

That being said, we’re all Americans, and this is all one country, so it’s time to stop the petty sniping from elitist snobs who base their elitism not on their own abilities but simply on their geographic location. It’s unAmerican.

* Quote of the day…

On his last day of campaigning, Huckabee appeared to go after Romney’s experience with a venture capital firm that specialized in re-organizing and sometimes downsizing struggling companies.

“I think sometimes the reason that our campaign is catching fire,” Huckabee said in Burlington, “is because people had rather elect a president who reminds him of the guy they work with — not the guy that laid them off.”

* Republican entrance polling

* Democratic entrance polling

* Entrance polling analysis

*** UPDATE 1 *** I agree with this bit of analysis in the Washington Post…

Since most of Obama’s legislation was enacted in Illinois, most of the evidence is found there — and it has been largely ignored by the media in a kind of Washington snobbery that assumes state legislatures are not to be taken seriously.

*** UPDATE 2 *** Two Illinoize bloggers have good posts up today.

Dan Johnson-Weinberger was in Iowa yesterday and filed a good report. Yellow Dog Democrat says Iowa is deja vu all over again.

*** UPDATE 3 *** As you might have guessed, my father was in Des Moines yesterday and sent along this photo…

*** UPDATE 4 *** It begins, but not from Clinton. Edwards takes a shot…

In an appearance on MSNBC, David Bonior, Edwards’ campaign manager, ripped into Obama’s record on health care from the time when he served in the Illinois State Senate.

“Barack Obama’s kind of change is where you sit down and you cut a deal with the corporate world,” Bonior said. “If you look at his record in Illinois when he had a major — sponsored a major health bill that’s what he did. He watered down with the help of the corporate lobbyist and they got a weak product out of that.”

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough interjected: “Are you saying that Barack Obama is a sellout to corporate interests?”

Bonior responded, “He was four years ago in Illinois. All you have to do is look at the legislation I’m referring to.”

The Obama campaign was quick to respond, defending their candidate’s credentials both on health care policy and his ability to stand up to lobbyists.

“The reason Barack Obama won such a commanding victory in Iowa is because Americans of all parties are hungry for a leader who can bring people together to take on the special interests,” said spokesman Ben Labolt in an email to the Huffington Post. “That’s how Barack Obama actually took on lobbyists and won in Illinois, and that’s how he expanded health care to 150,000 Illinois children and parents.”

The bill that Edwards’ guy referred to barely passed the Senate. So, without the “sell out” it’s doubtful anything would’ve been approved.