Upon taking a few photos of other large signs in downtown Des Moines we quickly found a coffee shop to warm up. There was a Chris Dodd sign hanging in the window.

The warm smell of beans greeted us along with young (soon to be) voter Julia working behind the counter. Behind her was a chalkboard that read the approval and disapproval rating for Bush. I knew this place would be a kindred spirit.

"I would caucus for Obama if I could," Julia said.

Julia is apparently too young by a mere five months. Guess the cut off has to come at some point. Don't you feel bad for the kid who's birthday is the day after. She hasn't done any work for Obama this year, but she helped out Howard Dean in 2004.

The Iowa Register we picked up from another table tells us that Hillary Clinton did 10,000 door knocks Saturday alone. Apparently the campaign made 10,000 house calls and 8800 phone calls in a single day as part of a huge women blitz to talk about why "mothers like us" are voting for Hillary Clinton.

"Do you get a lot of people asking about the Caucus?" I asked Julia.

"Yeah..."

More to come as the Caucus unfolds.

UPDATE: As we were driving around and looking through various places we ran into the Obama headquarters. We walked in to visit a few friends of ours, some from Kansas, and Tobin a great guy I know from youth politics.

Just as we entered we heard resounding cheers and applause.

The Iowa Register Poll was just posted - with Obama in the lead - up by 7%.

What is new about the poll is that Obama seemed to draw on his support not from Clinton or Edwards but from the "also ran" candidates like Richardson, Dodd, etc... Similarly, they show that Obama draws support mostly from men 18-34, people with a college degree, people who make more than $50k a year, and people from small cities, towns or metro areas. He does bad in the rurals.

Interestingly, they are all pulling even in union house holds. Which makes me sad about Edwards, since he's the union candidate.

Hillary Clinton, not surprisingly pulls most of her support from women. When it comes to men she only gets 16% of men and 11% of 18-34 year olds. 56% of young people break for Obama. Hillary is winning among Democrats, where Obama gets his support is from Independents - which is a victorious kinda deal for a general election, but in a caucus most goers are going to be democrats, according to David Yepson.

Next, we ran into I think it was a Quality inn looking for lodging. No surprise there was no room at the inn. But it turned out to be the New Years Eve party for Bill Richardson's campaign. We witnessed a woman having what seemed to be a Theresa Heinz Kerry moment and shouting wildly at someone. We left. And are now grooving out to the falling New Years ball in the Marriott bar.

Cheers!!