All attention, of course, is on Iowa this evening. Except — if campaigns are to be believed — for many of Nevada’s campaign workers because they have work to do.
Only Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign will be holding a “watch party” - what the cool kids call sitting at a bar as results come in, even as Sen. Hillary Clinton, former Sen. John Edwards and Gov. Bill Richardson’s campaign staff here work the phones, reaching out to supporters.

It’s typically politics 101 to hold “watch parties,” a chance for the organization’s hard-core supporters to feel good and boost morale.

“This gives us an opportunity for supporters who have been working hard on doors and phones for months to come together and enjoy the community they built,” said Shannon Gilson, spokeswoman for Obama’s Nevada campaign.

But there’s also a danger: What if your candidate doesn’t do well, and the cheerful gathering becomes a pity party, with frowning faces instead of high-fives appearing in tomorrow’s newspaper?

Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been dutifully downplaying expectations in Iowa. Politico reports that former Pres. Bill Clinton suggested at a Starbucks today that Iowa was not make-or-break for his wife’s presidential campaign.

But both the Clinton and Edwards campaigns say that they’re not worried about the expectation game, and that this is simply them wanting to work hard.

“We’re working,” said Adam Bozzi, spokesman for Edward’s Nevada’s campaign. “We have 16 days until Nevada’s caucus, and we’re reaching out to as many people as we can.”