This Again? In Frozen Iowa, the Press Corps Ponders a Slog of a Campaign.

Maybe it was the apocalyptically cold weather, with wind chills reaching minus 43 Fahrenheit. Or the winnowed field of candidates and an anxiety-addled electorate that is dreading the prospect of the first rerun election since the Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson rematch of 1956.

For whatever reason, the usual media circus that accompanies the Iowa caucuses has felt smaller this year, literally and spiritually.

The number of credentialed journalists fell to 1,200, from 2,600 four years ago. Some big name TV stars stayed home. The lobby bar of the Des Moines Marriott Downtown, once a buzzing, gossip-soaked node of Washington- and Manhattan-based reporters, anchors and operatives, was a ghost town late Saturday night. The attenuated vibe was best summed up by a T-shirt on sale in the hotel gift shop:

“Election 2024: Welp, I Guess We’re Doing This Again.”

Between low levels of voter interest, diminished debate ratings and a polling advantage for Donald J. Trump that has sapped much of the usual suspense, signs of media malaise had emerged even before last week’s blizzard dumped 22.9 inches of snow on Des Moines.

At a CNN debate, Steve Peoples of The Associated Press observed that the spin room — usually a hothouse of jostling spokespeople — was “basically empty” except for Griff II, a jowly bulldog mascot “whose face tells the story of this campaign.” Dave Weigel, a trail warrior who reports for Semafor, called the caucus a “cold and miserable trudge to Trump’s inevitable Iowa win.” Jonathan Martin, another veteran correspondent, wrote about “this desultory excuse of a presidential primary.”

I called Mr. Martin, a columnist at Politico, on Sunday for his take on the Iowa media scene. It turned out he was already back in Washington.