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"This had been the watering hole where the DC and New York media diaspora gathered, a scene we all loved and loved to hate (or at least pretend to hate). But one night after the Iowa caucuses, the City Center Lounge at the Marriott looked a lot like the rest of downtown Des Moines: deserted. Gone are former Congressman JC Watts catching up with Rep. Steve King like old friends, Times reporter Mark Leibovich greeting people at the door, Team Romney holding court at a table like the cool kids at a school cafeteria.\n\nIn the dim, post-caucus afterglow, the bar looks a lot like any other hotel bar in a small city: There are gaps on the liquor shelf. On the TV, Train is performing the halftime show at the Orange Bowl (ugh). In the wide lounge space, there are only two men fiddling on their lap tops and a bunch of overgrown frat boys playing with their Siri:\n\n\"Siri, I need to have sex,\" asks one.\n\n\"Sorry, I don't understand 'I need to have sex'\" Siri retorts.\n\nThe men erupt in giggles.\n\n\"Siri, I need a male prostitute,\" another says. But Siri just feigns ignorance.\n\n\"Des Moines sucks!\" one of them declares.\n\nOne person who didn't mind the hustle and bustle of City Center in the run up to the caucus? Tim, the bartender. \"It was kind of exciting,\" said spiky haired Tim, an armband stretched over his thick, tattooed biceps.\n\nTim began just around the time of the '08 caucuses, and he said the staff had a bunch of copies of Leibovich's New York Times piece on the bar upstairs. He said that the last minute addition of the bar paid off for the Marriott. \"Now that they got all of this attention, I'm sure they're really glad they got it done.\"\n\nTim said that Newt Gingrich had been coming to the bar since October. \"He was a good customer, they'd come in all the time, and Calista would come too,\" he said. \"They were a great group. I think they were more willing to hang out, and after the protesters they got more reluctant,\" referring to demonstrations around town by those \"Occupy clowns.\"\n\nMinutes later, an older gentleman rolled up to the bar with his friend. He complained of the Star Wars comparison on the Times piece. \"Star Wars?\" he said. \"That's just the liberal media doing their best to destroy the Iowa caucuses.\" He dug into a friend for ordering a creme de menthe on the rocks. \"He's been ordering girly shit all week,\" he told Tim. Upon seeing a lady next to him, he apologized and offered to buy my drink. The bar was beginning to fill up. Maybe it wasn't so lonely here after all."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/iowa-after-the-caucuses>