John Edwards' campaign slogan is "Tomorrow Begins Today," which is just evocative enough - think about it - to sound like it almost means something.

But on Thursday at Metro State, where 500 or more crowded a hall to see Edwards give his stump speech, the slogan actually made a strange kind of sense.

Remember: the date was March 1. In any normal election cycle - including all election cycles preceding this one - John Edwards can't pack a hall a full 20 months before Election Day. If you didn't know better, you'd think we were in the throes of Edwards-o-mania - a term, by the way, still waiting to be copyrighted - instead of seeing a candidate working hard to stay in the same sentence with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

In any case, Edwards, or his slogan anyway, is onto something: As it stands today, in this speeded-up race for the White House, when everything is starting long before it should, tomorrow began at least three months ago.

Or as the great philosopher L.P. "Yogi" Berra would put it: It's getting late early out there.

There are questions: If tomorrow is today, what does that mean for daylight-saving time? And if we're required to get involved in coverage this soon, how much time is too much time to spend with Wolf Blitzer in the Situation Room?

Crowds are huge in New Hampshire, in Iowa, everywhere. When Obama announced in Springfield, Ill., he had the most press there since Lincoln left town. It isn't just Obama. It's Hillary Clinton. It's John McCain. It's Rudy Giuliani. It's Edwards.

When I first saw Edwards, it was August of 2003 in a New Hampshire town called North Conway, best known for its endless outlet stores. Edwards was standing in a gazebo - Note: all New England towns, no matter how otherwise uncolorful must have a gazebo - and had attracted a crowd of maybe a dozen.

This is what used to be called retail politics, which has now gone wholesale. The early-campaign house parties, as Des Moines Register columnist David Yepsen wrote recently, "are now relics of past campaigns, as ancient as the torchlight parade."

Obviously, interest is up in an election that is wide open in both parties, where the stakes couldn't be much higher. The crowds, in a nation known for voting-booth apathy, would seem to be good for democracy - but as it turns out, only so good.

This is not (just) about a nation and a limited attention span. There wasn't enough time for Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor who wanted to be the next Jimmy Carter. Instead, he's the first person to drop out of the race because he couldn't raise the money.

Concerns are no different on the Republican side. Many conservatives are concerned there's not enough time for one of their own to emerge from the pack. Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, explaining away positions on gay rights, gun rights and most others kinds of rights. John McCain skipped the event, but if you want an applause line, you rip McCain-Kennedy on immigration or McCain-Feingold on campaign reform.

There's an old joke in New Hampshire about retail politics. A guy is asked what he thinks of Candidate X, and he answers: Not sure. I've only met him three times.

We're not talking ancient history here. In 2004, the big story was Howard Dean and how he emerged from the netroots - a new kind of democracy. It worked in the 2006 midterms, but look around. Bill Richardson - whose resume includes governor, Cabinet member, UN ambassador - is now the dark horse.

I went to see Edwards on what he was calling the first stop on his college tour (rallies in the afternoon, fundraisers at night: just like I remember college). He rolled up his sleeves and talked in big thoughts. He talked about transformational politics, about how it's too late for incrementalism and told a cheering crowd: "America wants to be inspired to do big and great things again."

Those big things include universal health care (paid for, he said, by actual tax money), Congress de-funding the war in Iraq (and, yes, Edwards apologized again for his 2002 Iraq vote), attacking poverty in America, attacking AIDS in Africa, and, since it's a college tour, attacking overpriced college tuition everywhere.

He was a courtroom lawyer, and he knows how to work a room - even a big room. And he'll be back. With the Democratic convention here, Denver is a destination city.

In fact, Obama is coming the week after next. I don't know where he's speaking. But, whatever room it is, you may want to invest in a pair of binoculars - and do it today, which is, of course, tomorrow.

littwinm@RockyMountainNews.com