One week until caucus

Brace yourselves everyone.  There are just seven days until the big daythat we have waited about one year for.  Yes, it has been about oneyear until Barack Obama decided to run, which set off a chain reactionthat forced Hillary to announce her candidacy a bit earlier than shehad originally planned.

Yes, the writers at this site have been on a two-month vacation.  Butnow it's time to kick it up a few notches.  We will have wall-to-wallcoverage of the Iowa contest next Thursday.  The first returns willcome in during the early-evening hours, as each network will conductentrance polls, which in my mind are absolutely meaningless becausecaucus-goers often change their minds during the debate and discussionperiod with their neighborhood precinct members.  It will beinteresting though to measure the difference between the entrance pollsand the actual vote, as it will show which supporters did a better jobof persuading undecided voters.

Right before Christmas, a new American Research Group pollshowed Hillary breaking away from the pack in Iowa, which is definitelyworrisome.  However, due to the Christmas polling blackout, we won'tknow for a few days whether that poll was just an outlier.

Either way, I still think the race is tight.  Don't count out JohnEdwards either, who has visited all 99 counties and has a massivelydetailed ground game.  And will Obama's young supporters actually showup?  We will find out in one week!