Every four years around this time, when I'm driving around I like seeing which candidate seems to be more popular, at least in terms of yard signs.

I live in SE Wisconsin, and while I won't say exactly where, I will say it is basically a mix between Democrats and Republicans.

That said, this year, when it comes to yard signs, I'm seeing about average number of McCain signs, but unfortunately...I can count the number of Obama signs on one hand. :(

Now I know there are alot of Obama supporters in this area. I see signs for other Democratic candidates. But like 2 Obama signs.

This makes me wonder, if they're really not making more of an effort to get a message out other than the TV and e-mail.

I find it disturbing. Wisconsin is a swing state.

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Less than a month before the Democratic primary to represent Iowa's third district, Ed Fallon is trying to make Congressman Leonard Boswell either debate him or pay a political price for refusing to debate.

Join me after the jump for more on that and other recent developments in the race.

I'm covering this campaign more frequently and in more detail at the Iowa progressive community blog Bleeding Heartland.

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Gauging actual candidate support by looking at yard signs concentration is an imperfect science at best; it may reflect how enterprising a candidate's campaign workers are rather than how much support the candidate has, especially here where most signs you see are just on the side of the road, often bunched together Republicans and Democrats existing in harmony

The enthusiasm gap between Democrats and Republicans is on clear display when it comes to the yard signs with Obama and Hillary leading the numbers. It's difficult to tell who has more, depends where you go -- Obama definitely ruled the area leading up to last night's dinner. Edwards is hardly represented, although moreso up north in the upper valley, which Edwards is courting heavily.

Among Republicans, it's Romney and Huckabee with the most, I'd give the edge to Romney. One of the oddest things is how few signs McCain has around, but he makes up for it with the size of his signs -- they're huge. And Ron Paul is well represented as well but his signs tend to hang from highway bridges. The Democrats have no highway bridge sign hanging, sad to say.

A few minutes until the Democrats debate...

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