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This year in politics, Independence ain't just a town in Missouri. It's a much-desired, sought-after voting block. Independent voters helped Clinton and McCain win New Hampshire and Obama win Iowa. They'll play an important role here in California.
Purplestates.tv has a silly name - not all politics can be color-coded - but it's a great idea: Video showcasing the thoughts, impressions and ideas of independent voters across the country. It's today's HotSpot.
Time to send you over to check out the fine work of Mystery Pollster Mark Blumenthal. Why? Cause no one explains this numbers stuff better and the polling numbers in New Hampshire are moving very quickly.
The primary, of course, is tomorrow and while Sen. Barack Obama is leading - or neck and neck, depending on how you wanna count - that could change. Mark does a good job of telling us why and what might happen next.
So for today - and probably tomorrow - he's today's Hotspot.
Here's the deal with covering politics: There's a lot of down time. So reporters look for ways to entertain themselves.
Now that you're a full-time political junkie, you can join in the fun. No, you can't swap texts with Dan Balz but you can kill a few hours by swinging on over to Atom Film's hysterical Kung-Fu Election and have the candidate of your choice matched up in a winner-take-all Hong Kong-style Kung Fu battle.
There's plenty more election waiting to come. We're bookmarking this one for future reference.
There are about 2,500 journalists in Iowa today, thousands campaign volunteers, almost two dozen presidential candidates, and way too many consultants, hangers-on and kibbitzers. All squeezed in to watch some 200,000 Iowa residents (a record-breaking turn-out, if it happens) vote in tonight's much-anticipated caucuses.
Bet you don't know what a caucus is. You aren't alone. So here's the LA Times' Q&A on what the caucuses are and how they work. It's today's much-needed how-to HotSpot.