Before the smoke from the New Year's Eve fireworks clears, the nation will begin to focus on the Republican caucus in Iowa. However, with just a few days to go, it's still a neck and neck horse race among the candidates, with no clear idea of who will emerge victorious.

Ron Paul still seems to have the edge in the polls, but it seems that either Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich could still win, despite that Gingrich is being ferociously targeted with negative ads by the other candidates and various interest groups. And, although the Iowa race looks like a three-way race, some analysts are saying that one of the other three candidates, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry or Rick Santorum could pull off a surprise.

Bachmann won a straw poll in the state earlier this ear, and Perry continues to spend a fortune on his Iowa campaign, while Santorum has been actively campaigning in Iowa for several weeks. The seventh Republican candidate, Jon Huntsman seems to have basically given up on Iowa and is focusing on the contest in New Hampshire on January 10.

With the race still wide open in Iowa, and Mitt Romney now pulling out all the stops to avoid repeating his 2007 primaries defeat, unless Romney wins Iowa convincingly, it seems unlikely that any of the seemingly weaker candidates will pull out of the race. Indications are that all of the candidates will contest the New Hampshire primary, then the all-important South Carolina primary that Gingrich seems to be focused on, and of course the very significant Florida primary on January 31. Several analysts believe that the primary race will become either a two- or a three-candidate race after the results of the Florida primary.

Interestingly, despite the focus on the Republican bid to find a candidate to effectively challenge President Obama for the U.S. presidency in 2012, an increasing number of Republicans are expressing dissatisfaction with the current pool of candidates. Republican political analysts, Robbin Mercer, on a holiday visit to Miami from Tampa, said, he "is genuinely" worried by the ability of the existing candidates, including Romney, to win in November 2012. "Few people are happy with the current candidates. Moreover, with Obama's ratings beginning to rise (now 48 percent from 41 percent a few weeks ago), the (Republican) Party cannot afford to have a weak candidate."

The eventual candidate could face an even harder time defeating Obama, who has begun to show more spunk and a fighting mood to meet any opposition placed in his way by Congressional Republicans before the November elections. There are also signs of the economy improving, as national economic indicators have been positive and retail sales and consumer satisfaction were extremely high in November and December. However, as was seen often in 2011, every day in American politics is an unpredictable day, and situations can change dramatically in a minute. Still, it must be disconcerting to Republicans that the starting gate of the Republican primaries represented by the Iowa caucus is this crowded, with very little confidence as to who could win the Iowa caucus.