Nine minutes before the start of caucus meetings across Iowa on January 19th, a dazed tramp crashed through the doors of Howard Dean's campaign headquarters in Des Moines: it looked, perhaps, a warm and intriguing place, and even a drink might be had. Three minutes later the tramp was being bundled out of the building by two new friends, Dean volunteers from Missouri, who rushed him by car to the precinct caucus nearest his shelter. "I will vote for your man!", he emphatically repeated, relishing his importance. Little good it did. Opinion polls had for months suggested that Mr Dean's insurgency—built on opposition to George Bush, to war in Iraq, and even to the Democratic establishment-had made him the clear favourite for the Democratic presidential nomination. Iowa seemed a shoo-in. After all, his army of orange-hatted enthusiasts was crawling over the state.
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