Hi everyone, Jeralyn from TalkLeft here filling in for John Amato. It's beyond cold in Des Moines -- we'll be in the single digits all day with a wind chill factor of 15 to 25 below zero.

Jane of Firedoglake and I had a fun New Years' Eve starting with dinner with 30 or so national reporters and other caucus followers in the wine room at 801 Grand, organized by David Shuster of MSNBC. Joe Trippi with the Edwards campaign joined the group -- he was in good spirits -- Jane will have a post up on her encounter with Trippi in about an hour. Tim Tagaris, Chris Dodd's internet director was also with us -- at 11 p.m. he got a text message telling him to report for duty at 8 a.m! After dinner Jane, her friend Linda and I headed down to the Court District, where the bars were overflowing with people and champagne.

At dinner, the topic was the new Des Moines Register poll -- and its obvious flaws. While it shows Obama ahead, it is far too top-heavy on independent voters. They also used a strange turn-out model.

A large crowd is pouring into a restaurant next door to the hotel as I write this -- it's a Joe Biden event. I've got to log off now as we are heading over to a Mitt Romney event. Tonight we'll be at a John Edwards get together. I'll be updating this thread with news from both so please stop back.