Can we go ahead and declare the Iowa Caucus irrelevant? Ok, it's not really irrelevant, but nearly so, or should be. 100,000 people are voting, and they deserve their due, but no more! 100,000 people will vote January 3. Millions of people will vote Tuesday, February 5. So, let's say that the Iowa Caucus is worth about one twentieth of the new Super-Duper Tuesday primaries. The story on January 4 should be: Well, that was nice, and interesting, but the real show will be February 5; we'll have to wait and see what happens then.
To work this needs to be a large scale effort in framing. Every discussion of the Iowa Caucus should note how small and preliminary it is and how big Super Tuesday Feb 5 is. And of course the same goes for New Hampshire, and to a lesser extent al the larger but still smaller-than-the-big-cluster states that happen before Feb 5.
Polls about Iowa and New Hampshire are an unhealthy obsession of the Old Media or Traditional Media who haven't adjusted to the new nearly-national primary of real importance that happens on February 5. When they make pronouncements about who is winning or has won those early states, it is at best a pitiful attempt to 'scoop' the story and say that they were there first with the accurate predictions, and at worst it is a cynical attempt to twist events and make the news.
Iowa and New Hampshire's insistence on being the first is selfish and greedy and undemocratic because they want to have more influence than the natural egalitarian principle of one-person-one-vote. They wish to have influence over later voters and traditionally they have but this is a bad thing. This year, with all the people in the states voting on Super Tuesday Feb 5, those people know that they can make a difference and won't be influenced (as much) by IA and NH and earlier states but may still have their say and swing the primary to any of the candidates. The nomination cannot be claimed until after Feb 5. That day has enough votes to swing it to anyone.
The time has passed for the much vaunted tradition of 'retail politics' that IA and NH claim as one of their special values. Many nationally televised debates, internet video and blogs allow interested voters (the kind that vote in primaries) to get personal and specific information they want about the candidates. We have effectively national campaigns for the national office. We are electing a President of the United States, not a President of Iowa and New Hampshire. 50 states, not 2.
Of course, that's just me going off on a rant. Dunno if anyone else agrees.