Tom Miller, Mike Fitzgerald... Barack Obama

Tom Miller, Mike Fitzgerald... Barack Obama

From the inbox:

U.S. Senator Barack Obama's campaign today announced that Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and Iowa State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald have endorsed Barack Obama for President...

No wonder they weren't on that Vilsack list yesterday... that's a big zing to the former guv: the two longest serving statewide elected officials, so popular they ran unopposed last year.

I'm remembering Tom Miller was a Lieberman guy in `03. I considered that myself since my caucus support is the kiss of death (Hart, Jackson, Harkin, Bradley, Dean... my only caucus for a nominee was the `96 Clinton re-elect) and I wanted to be sure Joementum would lose. But luckily he didn't need my help.

Hey, Drew, do you have the inside dish here?

Tangent: As an Iowan I hate to say it, but some of the second-tier folks would be best advised to adopt a Screw Iowa strategy rather than try to break through the Three Rock Stars and the Home Town Boy. The true second tier, Vilsack included, each has a needle that could in theory be threaded:

Bill Richardson needs to spend every free moment in Vegas (he may already be doing that)

New Hampshire is a short hop for Chris Dodd

Wes Clark, if he gets in, should focus on vet-heavy South Carolina.

At this point it should be noted that the Screw Iowa Strategy (Gore 88, McCain 00) has never worked.

The articulate Joe Biden has no viable options, so from this day on I include him in the third tier with Dennis Kookcinich, Sal Mohamed and Mike Gravel (it's pronounced graVEL and not like rocks).