[Ref]

Obama won the Democratic caucuses by a clear distance from John Edwards and Hillary Clinton, Edwards just edging Mrs Clinton into second place which is a surprise. At this early stage, a three-horse race is good because it allows a variety of voices to be heard but I hope that by the time it gets closer to the convention (perhaps after Super Tuesday), the field will have narrowed to two so that it's less messy.

In the Republican caucuses, Mike Huckabee has a clear lead over Mitt Romney with 96% of them complete. This is quite a scary prospect if the shape of the Republican race doesn't change dramatically. One the one hand, there's Huckabee, a southern Baptist minister who doesn't believe in evolution and on the other, the socially conservative Mormon, Romney. On the basis of Iowa, none of the other Republican candidates are close although don't bet against John McCain making a strong run and Giuliani possibly picking up some votes in the larger states.

With 305 days until the election, it's getting interesting already.

Read: BBC News' coverage of the elections; The Independent's Americas section; The Guardian's coverage of the elections.