Iowa's top three spin the fight in New Hampshire.

10:20 a.m. PT: One of the most important things to watch after a big primary or caucus is what the candidates say on the morning TV shows. Today, Kerry, Edwards, and Dean made the network rounds. Here's how they're revamping their messages for New Hampshire.

Kerry

1. Experience in foreign and domestic policy. In New Hampshire, Kerry faces a governor with no significant foreign policy experience, a former general with no significant domestic policy experience, and a first-term senator with some, but not much, of both. (This leaves out Joe Lieberman, who hasn't yet become a threat.) Of those four, Kerry says he's the only one with significant experience in both departments. Some of his pet phrases seem to aim at Dean ("safer and stronger," "judgment and temperament," "steady, trusted hand"). Others seem to aim at Clark (we need a president who "knows how to move the Congress"). Others seem to aim at Edwards ("ready to be president"). Kerry isn't afraid to state his political age: "35 years of experience."

2. Proven fighter. Kerry has adopted some of Dean's rhetoric, promising to "fight" and "take on powerful interests." He turns Dean's argument on its head. Dean says encrusted Washington Democrats are part of the problem. Kerry argues that unlike candidates who complain about Washington special interests from afar, he's been in the trenches fighting those interests (on the environment, prescription drugs, and Medicare). This is a tricky argument to pull off. It will take more skill than Kerry has shown so far, even in victory.

3. It isn't about me. Kerry's message about his readiness to be president is a return to the theme he stressed early last year. The reason that theme failed was that Kerry presented it in a self-absorbed, self-satisfied way. He sat in debates, looking confidently presidential while Dean talked about real issues and ate Kerry's lunch. What Kerry seems to have learned from Iowa and from Edwards is to focus more on real people and their problems. This morning he brushed off invitations to claim "vindication" in Iowa. Instead, he shifted the conversation to "the concerns of real people."

4. Gut check. In several interviews, Kerry said Iowans had checked his "gut" and "character" and had "looked in my eyes." This sounds to me like a shot at Clark for ducking Iowa. The message seems to be that while both men have shown military courage, only one has shown political courage.

5. Democrats don't need the South. On Good Morning America, Kerry was asked about Edwards' argument that the Democratic nominee must be able to win in the South. Kerry said this wasn't true because Al Gore could have won in 2000 just by picking up New Hampshire, West Virginia, or Ohio. A week from now, Kerry will sorely regret this comment, as Clark, Edwards, or both pummel him with it in South Carolina.

Edwards

1. Positive, hopeful, optimistic, uplifting. Blah, blah, blah. I'm one of the cynical pundits who finds this message fake and meaningless. But evidently it catapulted Edwards from single digits in Iowa to 32 percent. That's why he's a top-tier presidential candidate, and I'm sitting behind a computer.

2. It isn't about me. This is the theme Kerry is copying. It was Clinton's central message, allowing him to survive impeachment ("I just get up every day and work hard for you") because it made his opponents' attacks on him look like distractions from the job of helping people. Edwards applied the same lesson to Iowa with great effect. His rivals' attacks on each other, he argued, suggested to Iowans that those candidates "weren't listening to the voters." Edwards is so good at this shtick, Harry Smith of CBS had to plead with him this morning, "But I need you to talk about yourself for a second."