First Read - Read the NBC News guide to Iowa and New Hampshire

With just days to go until the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, NBC News has published its definitive guide of the history, tradition and statistics surrounding these nominating contests.
Prepare for Jan. 3's Iowa caucuses and the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary by reading the full guide now.
The guide (a .pdf file can be found here) contains a complete rundown of this year's primary calendar, and a look back at the political events to have govern the past year. It also breaks down the way delegates are apportioned to candidates throughout the GOP primary.
It dives even further into the history and demographics guiding the Iowa and New Hampshire contests, and includes data from the 2008 caucuses and primaries, too.
Read the guide now.

NBC's Domenico Montanaro breaks down how the caucus process works and just how much Iowa matters.

via firstread.msnbc.msn.com

As a NH resident, I'm always amused by these attempts to quantify and qualify the process here --- the first real, go-into-a-private-booth-and-actually-vote step in the political process.
(Yes, I'm dissing Iowa, which is more of a peer-pressure, high-school dance thing. )