SEE THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST FOR THE FINAL PRODUCT!

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This Thursday, January 3rd, nine months campaigning will culminate with the hotly contested Iowa Caucuses. Finally the voters (at least 100,000 of them) will be heard.

That night, at about 10pm, something dramatic will happen: the candidates, their staffs, the consultants and operatives, the anchors and reporters and Chris Dodd's family - i.e., all the people who temporarily made Iowa home - will leave.

Then what? How will Iowa deal with what's bound to be major Brooke Shields-ian post-electum depression? Watch and weigh in. (There's a prize involved.)


So what should we do? Send a card? Balloons? Bake a cake? Sign Iowa up for art classes?

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UPDATE:

Thanks for all the comments. I'm in NH right now, taping for CBS Sunday tomorrow. But I want to pursue Jacqueline's brilliant idea (comment #11 below) of a Thank You video for Iowa. (If you know any Iowans, DON'T TELL THEM. This should be a nice surprise.)

I'll ask my amazing producer Will to coordinate this. My gut is that everyone should prepare to send in a short (5 seconds?) message of appreciation/love for Iowa. You can just say how you feel or present an offering. Be as creative as you want or as simple as you please. (A plain old "Thanks, Iowa!" or "I love you, Iowa" is maybe best of all?)

More info later. I'm really excited that we can pull together and make Iowa feel better.

FURTHER UPDATE: Hello, there! Will here. If you'd like to contribute, tape your good wishes for Iowa and upload it to YouTube. Then send me a link to your video at willhines06@aol.com. If you prefer to upload it somewhere else, then do that and email me a link to where your video is. Just don't email me your movie files directly -- they'll be too large and my email server will reject them like an incomplete ballot. Let's do it! IOWA NEEDS US!

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AND HERE IT IS! THE VIDEO THANK YOU TO IOWA. THANKS TO ALL PARTICIPANTS. MAKE SURE TO FORWARD TO EVERY IOWAN YOU KNOW:

Iowa Results

After answering the questions in this online electoral compass poll, apparently I am most compatible with Obama.

Winner: Barack Obama

He is on his way. Watching his speech after the victory, I am reminded of how smooth a politician he is. Agree or disagree with him (although it's hard to do either since he isn't very clear on some of the issues), you get the sense of watching a world class politician. A nine point win over Hillary is HUGE. He should now be considered the front-runner.

Loser: Hillary Clinton

Three strikes against her: 1) She got killed by nine points. 2) She came in third, behind Edwards as well. 3) She didn't even break 30%.

Now the infighting will begin in her campaign. She is a juggernaut, so she won't be knocked out by this, but it does do serious damage. She just got knocked down; let's see how she responds when she gets back up.

Winner: John McCain

He wins even though he came in fourth. That's because Mitt Romney suffers the most in this and McCain would love a two man race between Huckabee and himself. If McCain can win in New Hampshire, he might get his wish.

Loser: Mitt Romney

Spent a gagillion dollars in Iowa and lost to Huckabee who spent thirteen bucks. In fact, he lost big. Getting your ass handed to you in one of the states that was supposed to propel you forward is not a good sign, to say the least. People just don't like this guy.

Here is a quick synopsis of our live coverage tonight (including an analysis of how Ron Paul might effect the race):




Watch More Young Turks Here

We're now in crunch time. The Iowa caucuses will be held tomorrow! We have waited nearly a year for this moment. And at this late juncture, I'm still not sure who I want to support among the "top" candidates and who I think is going to win.

Some polls have Barack Obama leading on the Democratic side and some have Hillary Clinton, with 25% of Democratic voters still undecided. Some polls have Mitt Romney leading among the Republicans while others have Huckabee leading, with 50% of Republicans still undecided.

If you like politics, it doesn't get any better than this. So, right before the vote, I'd like to see where you all stand (as much as I like some of the other candidates, I am only including the top three in each side for clarity and to keep things realistic at this point):

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Watch Live Coverage of the Iowa Caucus Here

The Iowa Caucuses finally arrive tomorrow, January 3rd. While political junkies are excited for the results of the first significant votes in the Democratic and Republican Presidential primary seasons, and everybody is planning to watch online coverage by The Young Turks (starting at 7pm ET / 4pm PT), I would like to remind everybody why I have so much disdain for the Iowa Caucuses: