"Frying steak"

Ben Smith:

Tomorrow is Hillary's healthcare rollout, and today is something like the opposite: Tom Harkin's steak fry, which I'm headed over to now.

I've got a story on Politico.com on the sheer scale and intensity of this year's Iowa campaign:

Six Democratic presidential candidates, 174 reporters, and some 10,000 ticket-holders head to Indianola, Iowa Sunday for Sen. Tom Harkin’s annual steak fry.

On their way through the small town (pop. 12,066) just south of Des Moines, they’ll pass by field offices of three of those campaigns — three among at least 96 outposts the six leading Democratic candidates have opened around the state.

“I’m not sure at this time in the last cycle anybody had an office here in Indianola,” marveled Matt Paul, the Harkin staffer organizing the annual gathering.

For all the chatter about a re-jiggered primary calendar and jockeying from California to Michigan to Florida, the January 14 Iowa caucuses have emerged as the central battle of the Democratic primary.

Howie P.S.: The Obama campaign produced a video (01:11) for the occasion, "Join Barack at the Harkin Steak Fry."