The earliest primaries are still months away, the general election more than a year off, but in the countryside of Iowa, it may already be too late for candidates who are trailing in fundraising or the polls.
That may sound rude and wrong, but it's right on the money.
The equation this year is simply brutal: With 18 reasonably big name candidates fighting for attention, and more likely to follow, including some possible political gorillas, it has never been harder for lesser-known candidates to get attention.
Add to that the fact that nearly half the states have moved their primaries way up, or are thinking about it.
And add to that a nationwide population now over 300 million people.
And you can see the problem: Too much ground to cover, too many people to reach, too much drain on all the resources of almost any struggling campaign.
So the lower level candidates can only wait and watch for a top-tier player to slip up, maybe giving them a stab at the finals.
Here's my question: Which top-tier candidate do you think runs the greatest risk of falling back into the minors? And which lower-level candidate is most likely to take advantage of a major candidate slip-up?
-- By Tom Foreman, CNN Correspondent
