Tom Vilsack understands that the road to the White House -- at least for him -- must travel through Nevada in 2008.

He's been to Nevada five times already this year, courting bloggers, speaking to young Democrats, raising money for statewide candidates and his political action committee, and meeting the political press corps here.

On Sunday, just days after becoming the first Democrat to officially announce a presidential bid, Vilsack stopped at UNLV for his first date with a tentative suitor considering its options in what will be a long courtship. It was a classic stump speech, one that will eventually be honed from its 45 minutes of heartfelt biographical background and policy ideas to a smooth, energetic quick sale.

Vilsack launched his presidential campaign last week in Iowa, where he is the outgoing, popular two-term governor. He then traveled to New Hampshire and his native Pittsburgh, did the Sunday talk circuit and stumped in Nevada.

The 2004 route to the Democratic nomination for president really began and ended in Iowa with Howard Dean's scream and John Kerry's surprise victory on the backs of the firefighters union. Those who skipped Iowa in 2004, including Gen. Wesley Clark, never caught up and were dead in the water shortly after New Hampshire.

It's all about momentum, and you can bet a second- or third-place finish in Iowa in 2008 will still keep candidates alive for Nevada's bumped-up caucuses and beyond.

The road for former vice presidential nominee John Edwards, for example, would require strong showings in Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire before he gets to his native South Carolina. Edwards knows this, and he has visited Nevada at least five times this year.

But Nevada voters are a fickle bunch. First of all, there's that pesky matter of all those residents moving in and out and around town. Sure, statewide voter registration is pretty even, but Republicans seem to vote more than Democrats. And it seems that when the voter list is purged in Clark County, more Democrats are lost.

New Hampshire primary purists have lambasted the decision to move the second-in-the-nation caucus to Nevada in 2008, citing our abysmal voter turnout.

For the candidates seeking the presidential nomination, Nevada may seem more like the Wild West portrayed in "Deadwood" than a real political force. Heck, we've even got the brothels, gambling, readily available booze and our own posse of small-town boys still running the show.

Vilsack knows his showing in Nevada will be more important than anything his home state does for him. After all, the conventional wisdom -- however in dispute by Iowa's Democratic Party and its new leader (who supported Edwards in 2004) -- is that Iowans will vote for Vilsack.

It's a model Tom Harkin enjoyed in 1992 in a fleeting bid for the nomination. The former senator scored three out of every four votes that year in Iowa, as most of the other candidates assumed he would win and skipped the state for New Hampshire.

Iowa was largely written off that year, and when I made the rounds in the Granite State a few weeks later, the presidential nomination seemed to start in New Hampshire. Nevada could easily change that dynamic in 2008, particularly if Vilsack does well here.

Vilsack's problem is similar to the one overcome by another governor who commandeered a letter of the alphabet as his call sign -- lack of foreign policy experience. Vilsack, whose political brand is the capital V, has even less foreign experience than W did in 2000. At least George W. Bush had his daddy and some Latin players on his baseball team.

Nevada Democrats still smarting from 2004's emasculation of Sen. John Kerry want some foreign cred to run against a GOP field that could include a POW-hero, an Olympic organizer and the man who became the world's mayor on Sept. 11, 2001.

With his moderate ideas on education reform, his push for renewable energy and his executive branch experience, Vilsack's the kind of candidate Nevadans of either party could support. His bio is essentially the opposite of fortunate nominees Kerry and Al Gore and more like the man from Hope who won two terms.

Nevada Democrats may not have warmed to him yet. In Review-Journal reporter David McGrath Schwartz's report of Vilsack's Sunday visit, Dwayne Chesnutt, an organizer for state Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus' gubernatorial campaign, expressed some trepidation. Chesnutt, like a lot of Nevada veterans, is probably waiting to see if Clark, the former NATO commander, can mount a credible campaign.

Clark, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd also visited this year. But no one can match the frequency and the quality of Nevada visits by Vilsack and Edwards.

Before we get all enamored of the two junior senators (Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama) who will likely visit, Nevada Democrats would be wise to remember who found us first -- and to ponder whether V could stand for victory.

Erin Neff's column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.