If you want to make a prediction about the outcome of the Iowa Caucuses, go ahead. While the polls lean in favor of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on the GOP side, the Democrats are divided and the polls reflect exactly that.

One highly regarded poll from the Des Moines Register showed Barack Obama lengthening his lead, but two other statewide polls from the same time frame showed Hillary Clinton was the favorite.

To me though, the most important part of these latest surveys was that up to a third of Democrats surveyed said they could still change their minds before the caucuses on Thursday night.

If that truly is the case, then the final outcome could be anything from a tightly bunched finish for Obama, Clinton and John Edwards to a big victory for one of them. And the different caucus rules used by Democrats could skew the outcome further.

Another key issue for me is the level of support among first time caucus-goers on the Democratic side, especially if they are younger voters.

The "Youth Vote" becomes a hot topic every four years in a Presidential race, but often it seems to disappear into the Election Ether, as young people are notorious for getting involved, but not following up by going to the polls in large numbers.

Could this year be different? Sure, it could. And those younger voters would seem more likely to support Barack Obama. To quote Bob Schieffer of CBS, "Time will tell."

As for Obama, he continues to portray himself as the agent of change in this race, much as Bill Clinton did back in 1992.

Hillary Clinton's comeback to that "change" argument is to emphasize her experience, both in the U.S. Senate and from her eight years as First Lady, while her husband was President.

Experience was a big deal for Democrats four years ago, when the choice was between John Kerry and John Edwards.

I remember repeatedly interviewing voters after Edwards events who were thinking hard about voting for him in New Hampshire, but they were worried that his one term in the Senate wasn't enough.

Obama could well be subjected to that same thought process by Democratic voters this year as well. But are they ready then to move to the "experience" candidate and back Hillary Clinton?

Hoping they won't is the John Edwards of 2008, who argues he is the best of the three top Democrats in the race right now. Could he spring between Obama and Clinton tomorrow night? He has been working hard in Iowa for several years now.

There was one major news story this week in the New York Times raising the specter of, what if no Democrat emerges from Iowa with a clear advantage? What if all three finish in what's basically a dead heat?

Meanwhile, the GOP battle has clearly evolved in Iowa into one involving new frontrunner Mike Huckabee and former frontrunner Mitt Romney, but there is a last minute wild card trying to move into the top three and make a splash as well.

Both Romney and Huckabee have been sniping at each other in recent days as the Romney camp went on the attack after seeing the lead of the former Governor of Massachusetts evaporate in Iowa.

Huckabee on Tuesday night held a rally in Des Moines with Hollywood star Chuck Norris - the aptly named "Huck and Chuck" show.

Tonight, Huckabee goes Hollywood for real, as he flies out to California following two morning events in Iowa, so he can appear on the first post-writers' strike show of Jay Leno.

In terms of Nielsen ratings, it might not compete with David Letterman's return that features Robin Williams, but it certainly will give Huckabee even more national name recognition.

Romney has gone after Huckabee with gusto in recent days, as have independent conservative groups who don't believe the former Arkansas Governor faithfully adheres to the principles embraced by former President Ronald Reagan.

Huckabee was ready to go negative in return, but backed off in a somewhat odd event on Monday, where he played an attack ad on Romney at a news conference, but then told reporters he would not run the ad, arguing it would be "gutter" politics. (So what if the ad is all over the internet now because of that news conference.)

The wild card mentioned above is John McCain. He hasn't spent much time here, but had been making noise about a higher finish since being endorsed by the Des Moines Register last month.

Now the Senator from Arizona has scheduled two days of stops, today and Thursday in hopes of finishing well in a state that he has not emphasized in his campaign, as he has mainly focused on New Hampshire, where he won big in 2000 against then Gov. George W. Bush.

If GOP voters think the Huckabee-Romney Punch-Out has been too much, maybe McCain could gain some extra votes. That happened four years ago with the Democrats, when Howard Dean and Richard Gephardt went tooth-and-nail at each other, allowing John Kerry and John Edwards to move past them.

As usual, when two parties have an open fight for the presidential nomination, there is almost too much to cover, too much to review for just one reporter like myself.

I would like to get to see six candidates today - the top three from the Democratic side and the top three GOP'ers, but I probably need a private plane instead of a rental car to do that.

As I type this, I have drawn a questionable looking map of Iowa on the hotel note pad and am trying to figure out who is where and at what time and how far I will have to drive.

My initial estimate is about 400 miles of driving on Wednesday, probably more.

The car heater will get a workout, as the high temperature in this part of Iowa will struggle to get to ten degrees.

Finally, one great part about covering the presidential race is that you sometimes feel like you are back in Washington, D.C. because of all the political and media people from there who are on the campaign trail as well.

While I was boarding my flight out of National Airport, there in the waiting area was a longtime colleague of mine who covers politics for the Voice of America. We have covered primaries and conventions together since 1992 or so, seeing more of each other when we are on the road than when we are in DC.

We were both on our way to Des Moines, but on separate tracks - I went through Detroit and he went through Memphis.

I will bet that his trip was a bit quicker, as my day started with an airport arrival at 7:30 am and ended when I finally got off the plane in Des Moines at almost 9:00pm Central Time, thanks to bad weather, a missed connection and a unscheduled extra flight to Minneapolis.

In fact, in Minneapolis, I actually got on an earlier flight as a standby, only to be pulled off that flight a few minutes later.

As to where my luggage is, no one is quite sure. Supposedly still in Detroit.

Maybe that idea of driving to Iowa wasn't that crazy after all.

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