Bubba's late; Mac is cutting back

"Life is a Highway" is playing...again...for the fourth time. Not sure what the delay is, but Bill and Hillary Clinton have yet to come out for his much-heralded return to Iowa here at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. They're already 47 minutes late by my watch. Apparently, he's not much more punctual as the spouse of a candidate than he was as the candidate (in other words, yes, he's ALWAYS late).

While I'm waiting, let's move to another candidate, John McCain. The word I'm hearing is that the campaign has gutted its Iowa operations. The Iowa campaign spokesman won't say how many of the 23 paid Iowa people (that includes 3 paid consultants) will be let go, but he says there have been "significant cuts." I remember a few months ago, McCain telling us he would do better raising money than he did during the first quarter. That didn't happen. Other campaigns are whispering in our ears about how this is more than the beginning of the end for McCain's campaign. But his Iowa spokesman says an Iowa visit is still planned for mid-July and that the all of these budget cuts actually mean the Senator will now be in Iowa more, not less.