NASHUA, N.H. -- Joe Biden knows what it would take to break into the top tier of the presidential contest.
"If I played Powerball and won $100 million," said the Democratic candidate. "I'm not being facetious. Literally, people would go, `The guy can spend like Romney. He can spend 20, 50 million bucks of his own money. Gotta put him in the top tier.'"
Class warfare, or at least class envy, is alive and well in the 2008 campaign. Those at the top command constant media attention. They reap millions in donations and soar in their private jets. The long shots, short on cash, waste hours in airport lines, waiting for their middle seat in coach. Most have been campaigning for more than a year, but they seldom make the news.
Many in the lower tier boast resumes at least as good as those of the top candidates. But anemic poll numbers create a vicious cycle that makes upward mobility extremely tough.
Attracting campaign contributions is difficult, which means less money for organizing and advertising, which makes it harder to lift poll numbers, which makes money-raising even harder.
Mike Huckabee, who ranks last in fundraising among Republican candidates, is running what he calls "a very frugal" campaign. But stretching a buck might have reached a limit when his staff booked him a room at one cheap Houston hotel where, according to Huckabee, he was the only guest who wore a shirt with sleeves.
"I thought I was going to get mugged," said the former Arkansas governor.
Last weekend, Huckabee finished a surprise second in the Iowa Republicans' straw poll and immediately went on national TV to declare himself a "first-tier" candidate. He said he had spent a total of $150,000, "down to the paper clips," in Iowa, while Mitt Romney, who finished first, shelled out an estimated $3 million.
It was Huckabee's pulpit-inflected speaking talent, not money, that produced the sort of headlines ("Huckabee, Iowa Poll's Real Winner?" - Wall Street Journal) that second-tier candidates dream about.
Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister, "is our Barack Obama," said an admiring adviser to Sam Brownback, a competitor for the support of social conservatives, who was hurt by finishing behind Huckabee in the straw poll.
There are no such early tests to sort out the contenders on the Democratic side, where tension levels are rising and reinforcing an atmosphere of chilly competition that, veterans say, is a departure from past campaigns.
