Iowa Caucus coverage

Sorry to be a bit off my game, folks, but here at Chez Brilliant we're dealing with a death in the family so energies are directed elsewhere for a couple of days. That's why the Brilliant of 2007 list and Critics over Coffee isn't up yet. Perhaps it's not such a bad thing that I can't spend the day and evening glued to the TV, though; after all, it was just four years ago that after the Iowa caucus was over, I was do depressed that for three weeks I could hardly drag myself out of bed in the morning to go to work.

But others are on the case, and here are some observations as we head into caucus day that are worth your time:

Brad Friedman on how the election in Kenya should remind Iowans of the importance of decentralized, precinct-based vote counting.

eRiposte has a ton of posts to help uMitt Romney's World of Pure Imaginationndecided Iowans sort it all out, such as a three-part series on whether Hillary Clinton is a corporate Democrat.

It isn't just Democrats caucusing today. For those following which one of the Republican nimrods, crazies, and theocrats (not that the three characteristics are mutually exclusive, mind you) is the choice of beleaguered Iowa Republicans, Americablog's Iowa correspondent reports on.

In case you missed it, the New York Times' Michael Gordon (no friend to Democrats) interviewed John Edwards on foreign policy. If you think Edwards is a lightweight, read this and be enlightened.

Note to Walter Shapiro: Why are you joining the MSM in burying John Edwards before anyone even gets to the school all-purpose room? Want to know why I'd rather sit at a wake than watch the television coverage that's going to be even worse? This is why.

Eric Stern, former executive director of National Stonewall Democrats, reminds us in this Salon compendium of celebrity prognosticators that when Gen. Peter Pace called gays and lesbians "immoral", John Edwards was the only candidate to immediately speak out. Overcompensating for his "internal struggle"? Perhaps. But the words are what people see.

Mike Caulfield makes a compelling case for Chris Dodd (who would be my #2 choice).

Jeff Fecke looks back on the Manly-Man Campaign that Wasn't of Fred Thompson.

DistributorcapNY discovers that political pundits are run on faulty operating systems.

Steve Benen on the splintering of the unholy alliance between the greedmonsters and the Jeebofascists of the Republican Party.

So we go into today with no idea what the citizens of Iowa have in store for us tonight. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Iowa, please don't fuck this up. The future of the Republic is in your hands.