Austin's NBC News affiliate has conducted a pre-debate poll of the electorate and this is what they've found :

The race for the Democratic nomination is too close to call. The large percentage of "undecided" voters give even more weight to the CNN debates Thursday evening. As Senators Clinton and Obama both tour Texas, they will be reaching out to the undecideds to close the gap.

If the election were held today, who would you vote for? Democrats:

• Clinton 46%
• Obama 45%
• Undecided 9%

Margin of error: +/- 4%

If the election were held today, who would you vote for? Republicans:

• Huckabee 30%
• McCain 52%
• Paul 9%
• Undecided 9%

Margin of error: +/- 4%

Voter interest is high for the March 4 primary and as Texas plays a role in deciding the nominee, the expected voter turnout is historic.

Do you plan to vote in the March 4 primary?
18-39
55% (Democrats)
45% (Republicans)

40-59
61% (D)
39% (R)

60+
49% (D)
51% (R)

They are going to conduct the poll again after the debate. What's really interesting is the reason why they chose the company conducting the poll, Constituents Dynamics:
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I sense there is much campaign journalist fatigue and boredom. First we had Howard Kurtz bemoaning the fact Obama hasn't shown him much love.

Now we have CNN's Peter Hamby writing about Huckabee's trash talking Romney over friend chicken. Not policy, but FRIED CHICKEN.

"I can tell you this," he said, "any Southerner knows if you don’t eat the skin don’t bother calling it fried chicken."

"So that's good. I'm glad that he did that, because that means I'm going to win Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma … all these great Southern states that understand the best part of fried chicken is the skin, if you're going to eat it that way."

This from a guy that supposedly has his stomach stapled due to his past obesity?

Dude.

Republicans are not shitting their pants over the prospect of a christian conservative like Mike Huckabee winning the GOP nomination. Their shitting their pants because Chuck Norris gave his hearty endorsement to the Huck*.

Chuck Norris fact : He can lead a horse to water and make it drink.

Hence, the GOP is fucked.

Here's Willian Krystol over at The New York Times

The best answer came, not surprisingly, from the best Republican campaigner so far — Mike Huckabee. He began by calmly mentioning his and Obama’s contrasting views on issues from guns to life to same-sex marriage. This served to remind Republicans that these contrasts have been central to G.O.P. success over the last quarter-century, and to suggest that Huckabee could credibly and comfortably make the socially conservative case in an electorally advantageous way.

Huckabee went on to pay tribute to Obama for his ability “to touch at the core of something Americans want” in seeming to move beyond partisanship. And, he added, Senator Obama is “a likable person who has excited people about wanting to vote who have not voted in the past.” Huckabee was of course aware that in praising Obama he was recommending himself.

I was watching the debate at the home of a savvy, moderately conservative New Hampshire Republican. It was at this moment that he turned to me and said: “You know, I’ve been a huge skeptic about Huckabee. I’m still not voting for him Tuesday. But I’ve got to say — I like him. And I wonder — could he be our strongest nominee?”

Andrew Sullivan muses about a one-term McCain presidency with Huckabee as his sidekick and successor. Over at The Wall Street Journal Henry Olsen claims that Huckabee's win in Iowa is a turning point for the GOP and a time to ask themselves if they want to become a Christian Democratic party.

Well ... at least he is incredibly liberal (for a conservative) when it comes to immigration.

President Huckabee? I need some dramatic chipmunk to go with that :
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Barack Obama: Barack Obama Last night I collapsed with exhaustion after spending several days coughing my lungs out. My son "Thing 2" probably saw it on my face when he asked me to snuggle with him in bed. I just passed out.

The last thought on my mind was --and I was thinking about this because I had every intention of blogging it-- that Edwards was going to win Iowa with Obama coming in on second. This was purely based on gut instinct and the kind of grassroots work I have seen unfolding from both campaigns. Hillary Clinton's campaign is too corporate, too top down and for that matter completely open and vulnerable to grassroots upsets.

And it showed last night.

Interesting piece of trivia : I should have known last night that Obama was going to win. I received a bulletin saying that Iowa had decided to lower the caucusing age to 17. Yes. 17 years-olds were voting last night at the caucuses. It may well explaining the huge turn out as well as the 57% of under 30 voting for Obama.

Here's the bulletin put out by the Maryland Democratic Party :
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I predicted Hucakbee would win Iowa. It doesn't mean that much. He will probably win Wyoming and South Carolina as well. I think McCain has a good shot at New Hampshire. Giuliani might just pull off some wins. Romney...well, he may take Michigan. My money is on Huckabee winning the nomination and has been for months. But it remains a three-to-four way race among the sad, sagging Republican race. Remember that Fred Thompson was supposed to save the Republicans from complete lameness. THAT sure didn't work. So lameness it remains, but Huckabee may be the most dangerous of the lame candidates. He trounced Romney tonight and I think that MIGHT spell the end of Romney. If Romney weren't a flip-flopping creep, I wouldn't think it would matter. But given that I didn't really believe he had much of a chance from the start, I think his loss tonight is significant. I think either Huckabee will surge and dominate, or he will find himself in a close heat with either McCain or McCain and Giuliani once Feb. 5th comes around.

On the Dem side I predicted Hillary would win Iowa with Edwards a possible second. Obama pulled it off. I think this means Edwards has very little chance. By no means no chance. But the polls don't look good for him elsewhere, so losing Iowa means no momentum going forward...which bodes ill. He's no fool. He could still pull off a comeback, but I don't consider it likely.
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It's been a fascinating weekend. On Saturday news broke out that The Boston Globe endorses Barack Obama and John McCain while the Des Moines Register endorses Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

During that same time, Newsweek published "The Sleeper" (on the cover, that is, because inside the atory is called, "The Road Warrior"), an eye-popping quasi-endorsement of the "I'm not dead yet" campaign-machine called John Edwards.

To one-up everybody in sight Joe "I am the heir of Zell Miller" Lieberman exclamates his passion for John McCain.

All this is happening during a weekend littered by the exchange of blogospheric emails and posts on the subject of Chris Dodd's coming filibuster of Harry Reid's FISA. The alleged leader of the Senate Majority announced last Friday he was going to introduce the Judiciary Committee's version of the "Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act" which would grant, among many other wrongs, immunity to the telecoms for aiding and abetting George Bush and Alberto Gonzales in their illegal spying schemes.
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