The Iowa Caucus Gremlins.

. . . the Iowa precinct caucus system broke down . . .

Hours passed as the Iowa Democratic Party struggled to reconcile conflicting numbers from the nearly 1,700 precincts.

In the absence of results in real time, it was anybody's guess who was winning. By the time the results are reported, perhaps on Tuesday, they could be subject to challenge or questions from one or another of the campaigns . . .

by Dan Balz. Washington Post.

Out where all the corn turns green,

there was quite an awful scene.

Democrats toiled through the night

to make caucus numbers right.

But the more they toiled away,

farther off the numbers stray.

Till at last with sorrow deep

ev'ryone falls fast asleep.

Hackers did not cause this mess,

but if I might take a guess,

I would say that gremlins threw

 spanners into this miscue.

Somehow imps did infiltrate

all the meetings in the state.

Sabotaging bylaws with

claws that tore out all the pith.

Hopping up and down with glee

they caused great perplexity,

making folding chairs collapse

and defacing precinct maps.

Disenfranchising hush-hush,

they turned voter rolls to mush.

While the farmers all got in,

not so those with darker skin.

With the process in retreat,

Iowa must face defeat.

Never more will they stand tall

as candidates must come to call.

In the White House, with sly grins,

Trump proclaims that no one wins.

(And when it comes to gremlins -- look,

I am sure Trump wrote the book!)