In his column today, Robert Novak reports that John McCain's advisers say it's now "certain" that he'll compete in Iowa, the state he bypassed during his Presidential primary challenge to George W. Bush in 2000:

The sign that McCain is aiming for Iowa came when his political action committee hired Terry Nelson, political director for Bush's 2004 campaign. An Iowan, Nelson knows the state well. That points to an early showdown in Iowa between McCain and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has built a grass-roots organization there.

Of course, Novak has a small stake in pushing the idea that McCain will compete in Iowa. A few days ago Novak wrote another column with some unsolicited advice for McCain: Compete in Iowa, or lose. "If McCain were to skip Iowa and then lose to, or narrowly defeat, Romney in New Hampshire," Novak wrote then, "he would then risk being shut out through the Southern states' presidential primaries, nearly putting him out of contention."