I just learned this the other day, and it certainly changed my perspective on the Iowa Caucus. Perhaps Kos or someone else has already mentioned it...
But at each caucus, a candidate has to garner at the very least 15% support. If they don't have 15% representation or support at the caucus, they're going to have to align themselves with another candidate.
So I figure the candidates most likely to be impacted by the 15% threshold are Edwards, Lieberman, and even Kerry. Does anyone think that a significant number of their supporters would align themselves with Dean if they don't have 15%? My thinking is no...and they may get strategic and go with Gephardt.
This may just be wishful thinking on my part, but once I learned of the 15% threshold, I wasn't so sure Dean would win Iowa. But being a Clark supporter, perhaps I want Dean to win in Iowa??