I think someone did too much Iowasca. After a year of build-up and hundreds of millions of campaign dollars spent, the Iowa Caucuses somehow ended up in a state of Iowait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. When it was all over, no one had any idea who won. Was it the way we set these things up? Was it a killer app created by a software firm called Shadow (seriously)? Or was it the fact that caucusing is just so complex and ridiculous? (Here’s a weird process we might want to try next time: Step one, vote. Step two, count the votes. It’s crazy, but it just might work.) Whatever it was, Iowa just gave us the most frustrating election results since hanging chads. Here’s the NYT on the night when nothing worked as planned. A Systemwide Disaster: How the Iowa Caucuses Melted Down. (The people of Iowa had to put up with a year of nonstop campaigning and political commercials. So it’s only fair that the rest of us have to put up with a few more hours of Iowa…)

+ Outside of political insiders, cable news pundits, and people having fun joking around on social media, the broader meaning of the Iowa snafu is … probably nothing. Unless you’re really into the idea of a state with just over 3 million people having this kind of throw in a nationwide election. Politico Magazine: The Death of Iowa.

+ WaPo’s Margaret Sullivan with least surprising headline of the day: Social media was a cesspool of toxic Iowa conspiracy theories last night. It’s only going to get worse.

+ On the plus side, at least there were memes.

+ Someone’s gonna win this thing. Here’s the latest from WaPo.

+ And just in case your faith in the political process (and those who participate in it) isn’t already completely ruined, this should do the trick: Homophobic Iowa Caucus-Goer Is Taken Aback When She Realizes Her Candidate, Pete Buttigieg, Is Gay. “Are you saying that he has a same sex partner? I don’t want anyone like that in the White House!” (Oh, go suck a caucus, you dipshit.)