What's the hold-up?

Not that it matters, since I'm watching George W. Bush on TV right now talk about his next four years in office. (And he's being so funny about the fact that he's 'reaching out' to the White House press corps. How about some more press conferences in the next four years, Mr. President? 'I'm going to start enforcing the one-question rule.' Ha ha ha. You know, I think I could have a beer with this guy.)

But isn't it embarrassing that Iowa still hasn't made its vote totals official? The place that got the 2004 election ball rolling now won't let it go. It's the only state that's still gray on the electoral map. What's the hold-up? According to the Des Moines Register, the totals probably won't be available until Monday, after some 15,000 provisional ballots and as many as 50,000 absentee ballots are added to the final tally. Bush's victory in Iowa, however (the first for a Republican in 20 years), seems assured.

Iowa's interesting in that you could probably draw a line right down the middle of the state, through Des Moines, and put Republicans on the west side and Democrats on the east. I'm not sure another state has such an obvious schism in its political sensibilities.

The 2008 Iowa caucuses (if they remain first in the nation) should be damn interesting...