According to this Marc Ambinder report, it's looking as if the Iowa GOP caucus will be held on Thursday, January 3, 2008. According to Ambinder, the Iowa Democrats prefer that the caucuses be held on Saturday, January 5, 2008. The two parties have until next Monday, October 15, 2007, to reconcile. If they do not come to an agreement, Ambinder's reporting indicates that the GOP will go ahead with the January 3 date. The Democrats will go with the January 5 date. Furthermore, if the two parties do not reconcile, it's probably true that whoever gets the three tickets out of the GOP caucuses will see their free media coverage diminish considerably when the Democrats hold their contests 48 hours later. And that especially will be true if Barack Obama wins Iowa. Whatever happens, though, the 2008 presidential campaign is set to begin extremely early. Soren Dayton has related thoughts here.