Anxious to get in the game

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee paid a visit to Alabama over the weekend, the first major party candidate to visit the state since the Iowa caucus at the start of the year.
If the big turnouts to see Huckabee in Birmingham on Saturday and Democrat Barack Obama in Birmingham on Sunday are any indicator, voters in the state are ready for the Super Tuesday close-up on Feb. 5.
It's a big change from 2004, when Alabamians voted in presidential primaries on June 1, well after the major parties had wrapped up their picks.
The entire electoral clock has been moved up. In 1996, Iowa made its presidential selections first, on Feb. 12. By the end of January 2008, eight states will have had their say on who will be on the November general election ballot.