JEFFERSON, Iowa -- Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama likes to joke about getting seasoned and stewed.

In speeches across Iowa in the final days before the state's Jan. 3 caucus that kicks off the 2008 presidential nominating contest, Obama regularly gets laughs and applause when he makes a clear dig at opponents like Sen. Hillary Clinton who say the first-term senator from Illinois is too inexperienced to be president.

"There have been some who say ... 'He may be inspiring and you like his ideas but you know what, he has not been in Washington long enough,'" Obama said.

"'We need to season him a little bit more. We need to stew him and boil all the hope out of him so he can sound like everybody else.'"

Obama then leads into one of the speech lines that generates the most applause, focusing on how he is the candidate that represents change.

"I have to admit that some people have even said that electing me right now without that Washington longevity that that would be a gamble, a roll of the dice," he said.

"But let me tell you something ... the real gamble right now would be to have the same old folks do the same old things over and over and over again and somehow expect a different outcome," Obama said.

-- Photo credit: Reuters/Keith Bedford

Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee has tried to seize the moral high ground by telling a news conference on Monday that he had made a TV spot to respond to rival Mitt Romney's attacks on him before deciding at the last second to pull them.

The announcement fell flat with much of the press corps who questioned whether the ploy was perhaps contrived, particularly because he was standing flanked by signs attacking Romney's policies on everything from his record as a non-hunter to abortion.

He also showed reporters the brief clip which hammered at Romney on abortion, fiscal policy and other issues. Huckabee has been complaining loudly on Romney's ads which he has told supporters  are plain dishonest.

"We often talk about changing the tone of politics ... and sometimes we talk about it and we end up doing the same things," he said, noting that for him the "tipping" point was the Romney attacks on another Republican rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain.

It remains to be seen if Huckabee's ploy finds resonance with his supporters, some of whom have said they admire him for among other things what they perceive to be his integrity, honesty and sense of fair play.

And the Romney campaign seized on that point.

"To say one thing one minute and then turn around and show an attack ad to reporters the next will, obviously, leave folks with a very cynical view of Mike Huckabee and his message," said Romney spokesman Kevin Madden.

-- Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young

If you don't already have your ticket out of Iowa on Jan. 4, you're probably too late.
 
The Des Moines International Airport sent out an advisory warning travelers that traffic on the two days after the Jan. 3 caucuses will be 50 percent busier and they can expect long lines at security. (An average of 5,600 passengers pass through each day.) 
 
A quick check of Expedia.com and there were no flights on Jan. 4 available from Des Moines to hubs like Chicago's O'Hare, Dallas/Forth Worth, and Cincinnati. The only seats available that day appeared to be on a United flight to Denver and a Northwest flight to Minneapolis, both at 7 p.m.
 
Jan. 5 looks better with several flights to major hubs available.
 
Oh, and airport officials are expecting some 2,000 rental cars to be returned over the two days.
 
"Many national and international media personnel will be attempting to leave central Iowa. It will take the cooperation of everyone to ensure this happens efficiently and that the nation gets a good picture of the capability of central Iowans," the advisory said.
 
Don't worry about the candidates, well most of them anyway. They have chartered their own planes to carry them (and some press) out of Des Moines as soon as the results from the caucuses are tabulated.

-- additional reporting by Kay Henderson in Des Moines

-- Photo credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani hasn't put much effort campaigning in the early nominating contests of Iowa and New Hampshire, but he wants reporters to remember he's been busy in other states where people already are likely voting.
 
The former New York mayor, seen as a moderate among the Republican contenders because of his support for abortion and gay rights, has largely focused his energies on states like Florida, California and Missouri.
 
For two days now Giuliani's campaign has sent reporters reminders about early voting for primaries beginning in numerous other states. Florida holds its primary on Jan. 29 while delegate-rich states California and Missouri vote Feb. 5 along with 20 other states.
 
Several states permit voters to cast absentee ballots when they know they cannot make it to the polls on the primary election day. And a handful of states allow broader early voting weeks before the election.
 
"For the record, only 78 delegates will be picked prior to Florida whereas 1,039 delegates will be picked on January 29 and February 5," Brent Seaborn, Giuliani's strategy director, said in a memo sent to campaign workers and reporters.
 
"It is important to note that voting HAS ALREADY STARTED in Florida, Missouri, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey and New York - tens of thousands of people will have already cast their ballot by the time you are reading this note," he said.
 
Giuliani has led national opinion polls but has trailed far behind rivals in Iowa and New Hampshire where he has recently made a late campaign effort.
 
Will the strategy work or be a tree falling in a forest?

-- Photo credit: Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi

Check Out Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii video game console as a darling of the 2007 holiday shopping season. 

Strong demand for the Wii was key to U.K. video game retailer Game Group Plc's  better-than-expected full-year profit forecast, the company said on Monday.

Last week, Amazon.com Inc said it sold nearly 17 of the popular systems per second when it had them in stock, helping the online retailer post the best holiday season in its history.

Last month, the system helped Nintendo remain king of the U.S. market with 981,000 Wiis sold in the console's best showing since its November 2006 debut, according to market research firm NPD Group.

Also in the basket:

With Wii and DS, Nintendo has 2 Hit Game Devices (New York Times)

Credit Crunch, Housing Crisis Socks Retail (New York Post)

Macy's to close nine stores, affects 899 jobs (Reuters)

DES MOINES -- Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee went for an early morning jog around an ice-covered Des Moines lake on Monday morning and couldn't resist making some obvious campaign analogies.

"I'm not a fast runner but I can go distances," he quipped to a shivering press corps that had gathered to cover his run in the frigid dawn. Huckabee has vaulted to the front of the pack in the Iowa caucuses that kicks off the 2008 presidential nominating contest on Thursday.

Warming to the theme, he said:

"It's about endurance ... it's about really determination and not letting  yourself get spooked by what's going on around you and it's just following on the trail ahead," he said. 

The affable former Arkansas governor famously shed 100 pounds and embraced the cause of exercise with all the ferver of a convert.  He now runs marathons.

After his fairly brief morning run with a few supporters, Huckabee was asked how he thought he would fare in a foot race with rival Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor with whom he is in a neck-and-neck race with in Iowa.

"Of course he'll be running both ways the whole time," Huckabee said in a dig at Romney's changing views on big issues such as abortion rights. 

-- Photo credit:  Reuters/Andy Clark

Christmas season. Peace on Earth, good will toward men, all is calm, all is bright...

Except in Peru, where they have this traditional festival, Takanakuy, that lets folks wallop the living snot out of each other in public, to settle old scores.

This is one Christmas celebration where it's certainly better to give than to receive. Check out Lindsay Claiborn's report. These people are pounding out "The Little Drummer Boy" with their knuckles, pa rum pum pum pum....

More stories from the Oddly Enough Blog

Media watchers are looking to 2008 to see the rise of scripted Web entertainment, a major shift to wireless networking and the cultivation of even younger consumers online. Here's a sampling of some of their predictions for the year ahead:
    
The Los Angeles Times sees professionally produced series on the Web taking on a life of their own, especially as the Hollywood writers strike continues to rage and keep fresh material off of TV.

CNET expects a busy year for networking technology, particularly for companies like Cisco and Microsoft, as major institutions from universities to hospitals make the shift to wireless.

Ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month, the Wall Street Journal highlights devices once considered "dumb" -- like the TV remote or personal navigator -- that are now using improved software to provide more functions and threaten sales of other kinds of electronics.

The New York Times sees gold in the "grammar-school set" online, as more companies try to create virtual words for the youngest of consumers. The Times also questions whether any clear winner will emerge from the Blu-ray vs HD DVD high-definition format war.

(Photo: Reuters)

Two good quotes from Wednesday's news. The first from the NYT Op-Ed page:

While the bubble was inflating, self-serving explanations were offered for why traditional formulas of home valuation no longer applied. As it turns out, the laws are still in effect. These traditional measures, like the relationship between home prices, rents and income, indicate that prices need to fall at least 30 percent more nationally. The sooner this balance is achieved, the sooner lenders will again commit capital.

30%? That seems to be a common number being thrown about. As the quote mentions, historically, home prices have been tied to incomes. Makes sense right? Folks spend a portion of their income on housing, as they do food, electricity, transportation, etc. As incomes rise, people are able to spend more on houses and prices rise. Marketwatch published an interesting article noting that median home prices are currently 3.5x median family incomes, down from a recent peak of 4.2, but still well above the average of 2.8x seen during the period 1984-2000. And 2.8x is the AVERAGE, meaning there are times when the number falls BELOW the average, as in the 1970s, when the number fell to 2.3x median income. It's another 20% down to 2.8x from 3.5x; which would be a 40% fall from the peak. Incomes could rise, though who thinks that's likely to happen with the economy teetering on the brink of recession?

That brings us to our second quote for Wednesday, this one from the Journal:

Home prices in 10 major metropolitan areas in October were down 6.7% from a year earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price indexes, released Wednesday by credit-rating firm Standard & Poor's. That exceeded the previous record year-to-year decline of 6.3% in April 1991, when the economy was emerging from a recession.

So we're well on our way, with home prices down nearly 7% in the top 10 metropolitan areas as of October.

Anyone else remember the folks that said housing prices "never" decline? That immigration would keep housing prices going up? That, for instance, boomers retiring would always make Florida real estate a good investment? I do.

With more write-downs looming, analysts have been expecting big Wall Street firms to head back to the wealth pools of Asia and the Middle East. So the Observer's weekend report that Merrill Lynch is talking again with these sovereign funds could help answer the remaining question: who's next. Given it is New Year's eve, Merrill would be a pretty good bet. Its announcement last Monday that it was selling up to $6.2 billion in shares to Singapore's Temasek and asset manager Davis Selected Advisers came on Christmas eve. The Observer article says Chief Executive John Thain has kept all his lieutenants holed up through the holiday season. 
    
Oil and gas exploration company Delta Petroleum said investor Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp will buy a 35 percent stake for $684 million. Delta said Tracinda will buy 36 million shares at $19 apiece, a premium of about 23 percent to the stock's Friday closing price, and get the equivalent board representation.
    
Alitalia has been exploited by politicians for too long, a top Italian politician told daily newspaper Corriere della Sera. Economy minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa said he was defending the government's decision last week to approve Alitalia pursuing talks with Air France-KLM.