海角大神

That鈥檚 how Decoder feels looking at the schedules for each of the GOP candidates today. It鈥檚 not poetically perfect by any stretch, but examining what each of the candidates is up to today builds a very helpful microcosm of the 2012 primary to this point. (Quoted text, unless otherwise noted, from the AP.)

奥丑补迟鈥檚 Mitt Romney doing? 鈥淗osting four fundraisers across New York City.鈥� To be fair, Mitt has been in both Iowa and New Hampshire recently - and it鈥檚 not like President Obama 颈蝉苍鈥檛 . But you could argue this encapsulates Romney: raising tons of money and not willing to risk much either financially or in public perception on the early voting process.

(This has recently started to change with a Romney Super PAC blasting the Iowa airwaves with advertisements and his campaign鈥檚 fusillades against Newt Gingrich).

And to add another level of gloss to our 鈥渢oday as microcosm鈥� idea, there鈥檚 this nugget, which aptly explains how Democrats feel about the race:

Democratic National Committee attempts to capitalize on former Massachusetts Governor鈥檚 live $10,000 dollar bet offer to Rick Perry by hiring a plane to fly over New York and New Jersey trailing sign reading 鈥楤et you 10k Romney鈥檚 Out of Touch鈥�.

Let鈥檚 just say there aren鈥檛 planes soaring over the University of Iowa, where our next candidate is holing up.

奥丑补迟鈥檚 Newt Gingrich doing? The candidate 鈥渋s set to talk about brain science research Wednesday afternoon at the University of Iowa.鈥� Brain science? Seriously? But for Gingrich, doing things like a talk on brain science is really key to the brand, in an odd way - he鈥檚 played the smartest, savviest, biggest-brained guy in the room during the entire process. Why stop now? Once you鈥檝e already hit and , brain science really 颈蝉苍鈥檛 too far afield.听 听

What are the rest doing? What you鈥檙e (conventionally) supposed to be doing - beating the pavement to meet voters.

• 鈥�Rick Santorum is visiting Urbandale and Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday morning before attending a noon event in Johnston and a Christmas party at his Des Moines headquarters.鈥�

• 鈥淩ick Perry is spending the day hosting a town hall meeting in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and appearing in the Iowa towns of Harlan and Denison.鈥�

• 鈥淩on听Paul is visiting the New Hampshire towns of Amherst, Hillsborough and Derry.鈥�

• Jon Huntsman, who has all but lived in New Hampshire, breaks up our perfect picture by taking a somewhat unconventional trip to .

So here we are - an almost entirely gun-shy former frontrunner (although that is changing, or has changed already), an unconventional pollsitter and a slew of candidates trying to do the right thing but not gaining any traction.

The next big event? Tomorrow night鈥檚 debate in Iowa, which will bring the candidates together for the penultimate time before the Iowa caucuses. Watch to see if the candidates who have been out and about across the Hawkeye state are keen to criticize those who鈥檝e avoided such peregrinations.

Go beyond:

• Mitt Romney鈥檚 been on the attack - but has his choice of surrogate attacker-in-chief in New Hampshire
• If you鈥檙e in Iowa, check out of where the candidates will be in the coming days. Here鈥檚 the and lists, too.

Like your politics unscrambled? Check out