With first caucus less than 60 days away, presidential candidates focus on rural Iowa, N.H.

Rural influences in states key to nominating the next president are apparent today, with news reports on the first Republican candidate to visit Dixville Notch, N.H., the Iowa-heavy schedules of the three leading Democratic candidates this week, and an Iowa appearance by early-state front-runner Mitt Romney (photo from the Iowa Independent).

Several voters in Dixville Notch, which votes at 12:01 a.m. on primary day in New Hampshire, asked former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the national GOP front-runner, "about his position on rural issues and the loss of jobs," reports Michael Shear of The Washington Post. Shear offers few specifics, adding later, "Rick Tillotson, who helps run the hotel, was one of the registered voters who asked Giuliani about rural issues. Later, he said the mayor obviously had 'very little' experience with such matters but added that he appreciated Giuliani's answer that lower taxes and a stronger economy will help farmers and others as much as city dwellers." (Read more)

Yesterday, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton started a four-day swing through Iowa, where she has a slim lead over former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. Edwards comes to Iowa today, and "will stop in many of the same towns. And as Clinton leaves Iowa ... Obama will start his own four-day trip through the state Tuesday night," the Post's Perry Bacon Jr. reports. (Read more) Clinton gave "a few hints about a rural policy plan she will unveil Monday in Cedar Rapids," reports Jason Clayworth of the Des Moines Register. (Read more)

Romney, who leads among Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire, appeared ignorant of "the relatively high concentration of Hispanic people in Marshalltown" on Friday when he said "You probably don't have a lot of immigrants legally" in Iowa, Adam Burke reports in the Iowa Independent. Burke notes that Marshalltown has "a meatpacking plant operated by Swift and Co. [that] was at the epicenter of a nationwide string of immigration raids in December 2006. The 2000 census measured the percentage of Hispanics in Marshalltown at 12.5 percent, though that number has likely grown." (Read more, watch video)