Early Caucus Affecting Candidates' Holiday Celebrations

WASHINGTON — 'Tis the season to be ... Fundraising? Glad handing? Speechifying?

With less than two weeks until Iowa caucus goers open the 2008 presidential primaries, family time around the Christmas tree is being cut short for staff consultations on the phone tree for candidates struggling to balance holiday traditions with campaign demands.

A few hearts are being broken along the way.

Sen. Barack Obama's 9-year-old daughter cried upon learning the family's customary Christmas in his native Hawaii was a scratch. This year's holidays, she was told, will be centered in Des Moines.

"They're going to be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Chicago, but they're going to be in Iowa the 26th through the caucuses," said Jennifer Psaki, campaign spokesman for Obama, D-Ill. "They'll be doing a number of campaign events, but they'll be in Iowa for the duration."

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican hopeful, will take a campaign trail detour to celebrate Christmas in Little Rock.

"The governor himself, personally, said 'Look, it's Christmas. Everybody needs to spend time with their families.' So we are taking Sunday, Monday and Tuesday," said campaign spokeswoman Charmaine Yost.

The day after Christmas, though, team Huckabee decamps to icy Iowa, she said, "from the 26th 'til kingdom come.'"

The kingdom, in this case, is the Jan. 3 caucuses held in living rooms, church parlors and school cafeterias across Iowa. The official start of the presidential race, the Iowa caucuses were moved up this election cycle by two weeks, making holiday campaigning mandatory.

"This is certainly the earliest it's ever been, and it makes a big difference," said Tracy Osborn, who teaches political science at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

A second factor has been the up-for-grabs quality of the primary races, surprisingly fluid this close to caucus day.

"I can't imagine any candidate, especially with polls so close on either side, would feel safe enough that they don't want to be out there the last week campaigning," said Osborn.

Despite the contentious fray, candidates are at pains to maintain a semblance of holiday spirit.

Edwards will take a breather from campaigning to join his family for Christmas in Chapel Hill, N.C., where children will unwrap their traditional holiday pajamas on Christmas Eve and Edwards will read a Christmas story aloud.

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., who has made four campaign trips to Iowa this month alone, was to return this weekend to his Wilmington home, where he'll host a sleigh full of children and grandchildren for a traditional Christmas eve slumber party.

Like Huckabee and Obama, though, Biden returns to Iowa on Wednesday.

Similarly, Clinton plans to spend Christmas in Chappaqua with her family and will return to the campaign trail right after that.

Her campaign has not released her schedule beyond that.

Not all candidates are headed straight to Iowa after Christmas.

Edwards and Romney both travel to New Hampshire for campaigning in advance of the second big contest in the primary season, on Jan. 8.

After two days of campaigning in the Granite State, Romney returns to Iowa for a day, then back to New Hampshire.

Giuliani is southbound after Christmas, heading to Florida on the 26th for three days of campaigning, and likely traveling to Iowa shortly after that.

The holiday season is also playing a role in the political ad wars, with many spots taking a holiday turn.

"In this holiday season, we're reminded that the things that unite us as a people are more powerful and enduring than anything that sets us apart, and we all have a stake in each other, in something larger than ourselves," Obama says in an ad, seated before a roaring fireplace and a Christmas tree with his wife and two daughters in what appears to be a living room.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., recalls a Christmas he spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, showing grainy footage of him recovering from injuries received when the plane he was flying was shot down over Hanoi.

On Christmas, McCain says, a Vietnamese guard approached him and drew a cross in the sandy soil in his prison compound.

"We stood wordlessly looking at the cross," McCain continues, "remembering the true light of Christmas."

Clinton packages policy - literally - in an ad that shows her seated on a couch in front of boxes in gold-foiled wrapping and red and green ribbons. To each she's attached a card inscribed with a Clinton priority: "Universal Health Care," "Alternative Energy." "Bring Troops Home."

And one candidate even manages to wed the holiday to a political pitch while professing to disdain the seasonal press for caucus support.

"Are you about worn out by all the television commercials you've been seeing, mostly about politics? Well, I don't blame you," Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, says in a television ad running across Iowa. "At this time of year, sometimes it's nice to pull aside from all of that and just remember that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family and friends."

"God bless," the ad closes, "and Merry Christmas."

There's a risk, analysts say, that the holiday rush of politicking could backfire, turning off voters who are seeking some seasonal peace.

"It's a big danger, not because people are so happy, but because people are so frazzled," said John Pitney, professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. "The holiday season is a time of high stress for many American families and the last thing a high-stressed mother or father needs is a phone call from a political candidate or a knock at the door."

Many Americans, it's fair to say, have had their fill of holiday marketing.

"Instead of finding good cheer, these candidates may find considerable resistance," said Pitney." We've seen Christmas trees in ads before."