It’s Election Day in Iowa. 

With the Iowa Caucuses slated to begin at 7pm Central, the chattering class on television is abuzz with wall-to-wall, all day Iowa coverage (or at least one would assume - we blew out a fuse here at the office and the televisions went dark).  1000 miles away (but more or less the same weather - clear skies and bitter cold), Connecticut’s politically active are tuned in to see what the Hawkeye Staters will do this evening at their ubitquitous caucuses.

Those interested in tracking the Iowa experience should visit New London Calling, as he is sloshing across Iowa for former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson’s campaign.  He has been posting updates periodically about what he sees and what is going on - well worth a read.

RealClearPolitics has the final polls before the caucuses posted today.  On the Republican side, it looks like it may be Governor Mike Huckabee in a photo finish this evening.  A Zogby 3 day Tracking number has Huckabee up by 6% over Governor Mitt Romney, though yesterday’s Strategic vision poll had Romney up by 2% and a CNN poll had him up by 3%.  Republicans, unlike Democrats in the Hawkeye State, do not participate in the “realignment” process, so once Republicans show up at their local caucus location, write their candidate’s name on a piece of paper, put it in a hat, and then wait for them to be tallied, the world will find out whether the Romney GOTV machine has worked or not.

For the Democrats, Illinois Senator Barack Obama seems to have edged past Senator Clinton in the most recent polls, with the RCP Average showing a narrow 4.2% lead for Obama.  Senator Clinton’s much-vaunted Get Out The Vote organization has its work cut out for it, but its cold and clear in Iowa, meaning that elderly Democratic women may well turn out in the numbers necessary for the New York Senator.  At the same time, Obama’s bedrock are the so-called “young voters” that are always talked about and never seem to show up.  Tonight we shall see if Obama - though light on specifics and heavy on the rhetoric of “hope” - can pull off the upset of Senator Clinton.