Strong performances at the early town hall events hosted by Fox News and CNN boosted Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., into the top tier and filled campaign coffers for some of his rivals who also spoke at town halls in the spring. As in the Republican primary in 2016, the debates have driven coverage, giving boosts of momentum to Senator Kamala Harris of California and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey.

Beyond those nationally televised events, little has broken through in a major way to voters — at least not in a way that has significantly shifted the polls away from Mr. Biden, whose support held statistically steady at 28 percent according to a new Monmouth University poll released by on Thursday morning.

The Democratic primary candidates have to spend this weekend at the fair: Skipping it entirely would be interpreted as a huge insult to those first primary voters. And Iowa certainly matters, a lot. A win — or a close second or third — in the first voting state catapults a candidate into the many contests that follow.

But the truth is that no matter how well you do at the fair, people care only if you mess up or literally fly into the event in a helicopter. Otherwise, it’s hard to make news, particularly at a time when the stock market is tumbling and the country is so on edge that the sound of a falling sign in a Salt Lake mall sent Americans running for cover. And with so many candidates, most are likely to be relegated to a photo slide show of politicians going down the big slide.

A major gaffe — like besmirching the sanctity of butter or somehow insulting corn — could haunt a candidacy. But a boffo performance? Hard to see it breaking through. Even in Iowa.

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