For the past 36 nonstop hours, Democratic candidate John Edwards barnstormed around the state of Iowa in his final sprint before the Iowa caucuses. For each hour during Edwards’ “Marathon for the Middle Class,” he discussed one specific policy initiative—a total of 36 steps he’ll take to strengthen the middle class if elected President.

As he visited 15 Iowa counties in the wee hours of the night, Edwards stopped at the homes of local supporters to speak out for the working middle class and boost his campaign’s momentum. He was accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth, and oldest daughter, Cate.

12:30 AM—Atlantic, Iowa

2:30 AM—Creston, Iowa

So what was it like to spend 36 straight hours with the Senator? In our 29th hour, Edwards surprised the entire press corps when he hopped on board our bus to hand out cups of coffee to reporters. He poked fun at some of us for looking tired (a remark he later joked he would regret). Not a coffee drinker, he said he was fueling himself with Sprite.

Edwards’ marathon campaign run climaxed in its 36th hour at a concert featuring singer-songwriter, John Mellencamp, in West Des Moines.

Hillary Clinton was Fired Up and Ready to Go in Davenport, IA tonight — as she borrowed the signature catch-phrase of the Obama campaign. Video courtesy of student photographer Laura from Truman University in Missouri.

INDIANOLA, IA — For the first time in her presidential campaign, Sen Clinton boarded the press bus that trails her from event to event — thanking the traveling media for a long campaign with bagels and coffee.

The stunned press corps, which often complains on this very bus about how inaccessible the Senator is to the media, could barely shout out a “thank you, Senator,” much less a question. All told, the visit lasted about a minute and a half. Here it is in its entirety — and for those wondering about the shadowy figure at the front of the bus, you’re getting a rare sighting of Hillary’s press secretary, Phil Singer.

 Every Iowan watching an evening newscast tonight will see this 2 minute ad from Hillary Clinton making the case for her candidacy. The campaign bought time in every media market on every broadcast in the state. Take a look.

Hillary Clinton loosened up at a packed event in Iowa City tonight — the final stop on a very long day of campaigning. She began by wishing the standing room only crowd of nearly 1,000 a Happy New Year, saying “the party just ended, right? Good, we like that! We like a lot of hearty partiers coming out to pick the next president of the United States. That’s exactly as it should be.”

“It’s not just all serious. You’ve got to have a little bit of fun in this process,” she said. “We have a lot of deficits in Washington, including a fun deficit.”

She thanked the pre-program entertainer, singer Betty Oh, with an extravagant shout-out. “Where are you Betty Oh? There you are!” she yelled. “Thank you Betty-Oh!!! I love it. From one diva to another Betty Oh, I’m so happy to see you!”

She remembered the last time she was there and the overflow crowd had to wait outside, saying there were 300 people “literally freezing to death.”

She told the story of a developmentally disabled kid that grew up in her childhood neighborhood, and admitted to making fun of him in her youth. “When I was growing up down the street from where I lived, there was a boy who never went to school. We kind of made fun of him, I hate to admit, because he was slow.”

And she performed a mocking impression of Republicans as if they just would decide to cede the general election to the Democrats — even affecting a goofy voice. “You know, the Republicans are not going to just throw up their hands and say ‘oh, it’s the Democrats turn. We have messed it up so badly! We are ashamed to go on, we’re not going to wage our usual brutal, mean-spirited, dishonest campaigns because we know they’re the better people.’ Ain’t gonna happen.”

Obama is on day seven of his “Stand for Change” bus tour through Iowa (which has now taken partly to the air), which has taken him to four or five Iowa cities and towns each day.

So it’s not surprising that he temporarily forgot where he was while rallying a crowd in Council Bluffs - note the expert recovery

Dennis Kucinich encouraged his Iowa supporters today to make Barack Obama their second choice candidate. Should Kucinich fail to receive the needed 15% support of caucus goers to remain viable, he asks that his supporters to realign behind Obama. The “second choice” vote is one that Obama has been pitching to voters for some days now.

“I hope Iowans will caucus for me as their first choice this Thursday, because of my singular positions on the war, on health care, and trade,” Kucinich said in a writen statement. “But in those caucus locations where my support doesn’t reach the necessary threshold, I strongly encourage all of my supporters to make Barack Obama their second choice.”

Why Obama? “Senator Obama and I have one thing in common: Change,” Kucinich said. Kucinich, also a “fringe candidate” in 2004, asked his supporters to go with John Edwards four years ago. According to sources inside the Kucinich campaign, the congressman chose Obama this time around because of comments Edwards made to Hillary Clinton on an open microphone after an earlier debate, saying candidates like Kucinich weren’t “serious.”

Senator Obama’s campaign issued a “thank you” statement, in which it was noted that “he and I have been fighting for a number of the same priorities — including an end to the war in Iraq that we both opposed from the start, reforming Washington and creating a better life for America’s working families.”

Soon after the thank you statement, the Obama issued another statement urging television networks to “allow full participation” in the upcoming debate in New Hampshire. Both the Kucinich and Obama campaigns insist no deals were brokered in exchange for this statement.

The senator phoned the congressman upon hearing the news to personally thank him. No word if Kucinich told Obama on the phone what he also said in the statement: “This is obviously an ‘Iowa only’ recommendation, as Sen. Obama and I are competing in the New Hampshire primary next Tuesday where I want to be the first choice of New Hampshire voters.”

Senator Clinton is bringing back some of the fire to her closing argument speeches, rallying the crowd with a call and response we haven’t heard in a few months. In Sioux City (where Obama held a competing rally minutes before), the crowd rose to its feet when she punctuated the exchange, asking, “Are you ready to end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home?” As they resumed their seats, she told them, “If you’re ready for change, I’m ready to lead.”

In Ames (where John Edwards held a competing rally minutes later). she spoke for more than an hour, including a Q&A session that marked just the fourth time that she’s taken questions in her last 25 events. There, technical glitches provided the highlights; when the overflow room erupted in applause three seconds after she delivered the money line (audio there was on a delay), she told the crowd that either it was the overflow room “or its the end of a great New Year’s Eve party.”

And when that delayed audio started piping into the main room, she recounted how her microphone went out at an event yesterday in Muscatine while she was talking about George Bush. “I thought, I know they’re a little obsessed with me, but this is getting absurd.”

Meanwhile, former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack told the crowd that new Iowa polls show her building momentum in the state. Presumably, he’s not talking about the Des Moines Register poll that shows her down 7 points to Barack Obama.

But there’s not much else for journalists to sink their teeth into at these rallies. We’ve all seen this same speech dozens of times over the last two weeks. Of course, the events aren’t for us; the campaign would prefer to make no national news in the last hours before the caucuses on Thursday

That’s the name the press has given Obama’s new jet that’s whisking him to four different Iowa television markets today. It’s a 50-seater (31 press, the rest are for staff and Secret Service - and Obama and his sister, Auma) with a big Expressjet logo on the side of the plane.

Obama sat with his sister in the front row, across the aisle from senior advisor, David Axelrod. Secret Service sat between staff and press, which, as is typical, was relegated to the back of the plane.

The campaign has approximated press travel to total $1,500 for three flights over the next two days. Our first flight was from Des Moines to Sioux City - a 36-minute flight versus a 2-hour, 59-minute drive per mapquest.com.

When the senator flies to New Hampshire after the caucuses, we will be flying in a different, bigger plane.

“It’s a good way to ring in the new year,” Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said last night in response to the new Des Moines register poll showing Senator Obama up four percentage points to 32% over Hillary Clinton’s 25%.

At his New Year’s Eve rally in Ames, Obama seemed pleased and announced that he was up “six or seven” points in the poll. “It’s beyond the margain of error - so we might just pull this thing off.” Of course the New Year’s Eve/Obama revelers cheered.

But caucuses are notoriously difficult to poll and even the Register cautioned relying on this one too heavily. The next morning in the sober six degree weather, Obama told a gym full of voters/canvass volunteers in Des Moines that polls are not enough. “The only thing that counts is whether or not you show up to caucus. The only thing that counts is whether over the next 72 hours, you’re willing to work for this and make the phone calls and knock on the doors and grab your friends and grab your neighbors and say it is time for us to deliver on change. That’s the only thing, that’s the only poll that we’re paying attention to is Thursday.”

He later told reporters on his plane that he hasn’t been paying “too much attention to polls at this point.” He added, “Now I think it’s going to come down to who gets their supporters out and I’ll put my money on my organization - it’s as good, and as dedicated and as intense as I’ve ever seen.”

Obama does regularly reference “recent polls” in his stump speech to prove to Iowans that he is more electable than Senators Clinton and Edwards. He tells voters that polls show that he can beat all five of the Republicans running for the nomination while other Democrats cannot. So clearly he’s paying attention to some polls.