IOWA TOMORROW – AT 10:48 A.M. ET:  The Iowa caucuses are tomorrow, not Tuesday, the traditional election day.  The candidates are making their last appeals.

Iowa is important.  It will remain important for about two days, then you won't hear the name again.  Same with New Hampshire a week from Tuesday.  Get the fame while you can.  From Fox: 

The 2016 presidential contenders are begging their Iowa supporters to get to the caucuses Monday and Donald Trump, true to form, is in-your-face about it.

"You're from Iowa," Trump told a Dubuque crowd Saturday. "Are you afraid of snow?"

A snowfall forecast to start Monday night appeared more likely to hinder the hopefuls in their rush out of Iowa than the voters who will be flocking to the caucuses in the first contest of the presidential campaign.

Still, there was every reason for candidates to be urgent about turnout in tight races on both sides.

Democrat Bernie Sanders called it a tossup with Hillary Clinton and said every caucus-goer counts.

Republican Ted Cruz directed much of his final advertising against Marco Rubio as the senators' feud grows even more bitter in the final days.

Texan Cruz, considered Trump's chief rival in Iowa, took to the airwaves to challenge the conservative credentials of Rubio, the Floridian who's running third in Iowa, according to the polls.

One ad said of Rubio: "Tax hikes. Amnesty. The Republican Obama."

"The desperation kicks in," Rubio said in response. "From my experience, when people start attacking you it's because you're doing something right."

Iowa offers only a small contingent of the delegates who will determine the nominees, but the game of expectations counts for far more than the electoral math in the state. Campaigns worked aggressively to set those expectations in their favor (meaning, lower them) for Iowa, next-up New Hampshire and beyond.

COMMENT:  So now we wait for the caucuses, and the even longer pundit analyses to follow.  By the time the analytics are finished, the candidates will be in New Hampshire, not recalling where Des Moines is.

January 31,  2016