Just in case Joe Biden comes back from the dead in Iowa -- but I suppose a candidate has to be alive, politically speaking, first -- let this post serve as my post-Caucus day defense to readers who wonder why no one saw it coming.

Well, a few, including of course Biden himself, see a faint glimmer of chance:

First, Reid Wilson sat down with Biden in Indianola, Iowa, for an interview. There's also this article from Time's Jay Newton-Small:

Biden has seen standing room-only crowds, like the one in Ames, across the state in recent weeks. And the Ames audience was twice moved to its feet in ovations for Biden's stump speech -- a surprisingly brisk 18 minutes compared to Obama's nearly hour-long closing argument, Hillary's 45-minute speeches and Edwards' typical 35-minute spiel. Biden by comparison spends more than an hour answering questions, a strategy, his communications director Larry Rusky says, that is starting to pay off.

There's also the boasting coming from the campaign in an email blasted out earlier today:

* 500+ people yesterday in Des Moines; a "first tier crowd"

* 300 Biden backers in Mason City

* 250 enthusiastic supporters in Dubuque; "a scene more typical of the events of democratic front-Runners"

* An "energetic crowd" in Waterloo ; leads to "an endorsement from a key Black Hawk County Democrat"

* 200-strong crowd in Council Bluffs

There, now I feel more comfortable facing readers on Friday morning. The silver lining of course for Biden is that he doesn't have to win. He doesn't even need to be close. A close fourth would be victory enough for a candidate who hasn't topped 10% on any poll in the past year. I wouldn't bet on it, though.