Taegan Goddard had an interesting blurb on the South Carolina spending of Clinton, Edwards, and Obama yesterday, noting that Obama had thus far spent the most among his competitors in the state. He linked to an article from The Hill detailing the campaigns' expenditures on staffers, where he found the info about South Carolina. Adam B has compiled a list of visits at Open Left using the Washington Post's 2008 Presidential Campaign Tracker. It's interesting to see where the candidates are spending their money and their time:

Staff Payrolls and Number of '07 Visits

Remember, this is only money being spent on actual staffers in the state and number of candidate visits, and doesn't indicate how much money is being spent on materials, TV ads, etc. But it does a pretty good job of revealing how the candidates are prioritizing the early states. A few cool things to take away:

1. Obama is definitely focusing a lot more effort on staff in South Carolina (though Hillary, Richardson, and Edwards have visited more often), whereas Richardson is focusing heavily on Nevada (he's spending more on staff than in Iowa and visiting just as often as he does the Hawkeye state). Richardson is also spending more on staff in South Carolina than in New Hampshire. However, much more of his time is spent in NH.
   
2. Obama is spending a lot more money than the other candidates, including Hillary, on building up his staff presence in the early states
   
3. As Chris Bowers pointed out, "Edwards has the advantage [o]f not having any other job. He has visited every early state more than anyone else, except Richardson in Nevada." It's also important to note that he's been in the race a lot longer than anyone else, and has been making visits to the early primary states ever since the loss in 2004. The number of visits only covers the period since the beginning of 2007.

Because I wasn't sure the 2008 primaries were getting enough attention around here...