Iowa Dems: Gut-check time (Updated)

At this point, it's all about closing the deal. And despite recent polls showing her surging, if I'm Clinton, I'm concerned:

[P]olitical operatives estimate as many as one out of every five caucus-goers might not have made up their minds yet, and for undecided voters, it's a little more complicated.

Some say they can see Clinton's point, but the argument still hasn't closed the deal. "I know she could get the job done," said Nell Duwelius, who's trying to choose between Clinton, Edwards and Obama. "I hope [Obama] can get the job done."

As Clinton hammers through her résumé line by line, though, she risks leaving the crowd behind, even if she gets the idea across. There's nothing subtle about her latest theme; from the gigantic American flag backdrops to the plain-spoken rhetoric about plowing through Republican obstacles, Clinton almost seems to be trying to bulldoze voters into her camp.

"It's not terribly inspiring," Jaclyn Rundle, a management professor at Central College, after listening to Clinton make her case at a rally in Pella. "There's nothing flashy about it, nothing very elevating."

I'll bet you a nickel that the 20% who haven't yet decided will break toward either Obama or Edwards. Because when it gets to gut-check time, how you feel about a candidate (not what you know) is what counts.

UPDATE: No telling how the death of Benazir Bhutto plays into this. Every Dem candidate is trying to fit themselves into an inspirational narrative that makes sense out of her assassination. We'll have to wait and see.