Is This What We Can Expect At Christmas?

Joe Biden is taking virtually no break for the long Thanksgiving weekend. The holiday itself -- six weeks to the day before the caucuses -- is the only day with no scheduled events in an 11 day Iowa trip that starts Sunday.

Biden's last Wednesday event, billed as a "house party and canned food drive," starts at 5:30 p.m. in Des Moines. The Black Friday de facto shopping holiday is mostly free of announced events, but Biden's having another Polk County house party at 5:30 that night.

Hillary Clinton's last Iowa event is Tuesday afternoon, and John Edwards finishes a tour with Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne on Tuesday night. But Mitt Romney is pushing into the day before the holiday, with Wednesday stops in Washington and Iowa City.

This is with six weeks to go before the caucuses. We can already bet that New Years Eve and Day in caucus week are fair game, but those are secular holidays devoted to partying, parades and football. But how intense will the campaigning be a week before the caucuses, with that inconvenient major religious holiday in the way? Is a rally Sunday night Dec. 23 too close to Christmas? Is it in bad taste to try shaking hands at Jordan Creek or Coral Ridge malls the morning of Boxing Day as people go back to exchange presents and spend gift certificates?

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