Romney barely beats Santorum

The road doesn't look much smoother for anyone but Romney, and his win was about as slim as it could be.

Final Iowa Caucus results:

ROMNEY WINS IOWA BY 8 VOTES - With 100 percent of Iowa precincts reporting just after 2:30 a.m. after a bizarre delay in Clinton County that played out across punch-drunk late night cable (Edith and Caroline live on CNN!) and frazzled Twitter feeds:  Mitt Romney: 30,015 (24.6 percent); Rick Santorum: 30,007 (24.5 percent); Ron Paul: 26,219 (21.4 percent); Newt Gingrich: 16,251 (13.3 percent); Rick Perry: 12,604 (10.3 percent); Michele Bachmann: 6,073 (5.0 percent).

So the night ended in a virtual tie between Romney and Santorum, with Paul a close third. Gingrich was an also-ran and Rick Perry, my choice, did even worse -- 10% -- and may drop out. The conservative vote coalesced around the other Rick. At least no one can accuse Perry of not putting in a strong effort. So there's that.

The silver lining is that Rick Santorum, another unapologetic conservative (though not nearly the advocate of limited government that Perry is), has had some serious oomph injected into his campaign with his amazing surge and strong finish. To do so, he had to basically reside in Iowa and stalk its voters, county by county, for months on end. I'm not sure how he can replicate that strategy in other states, short of cloning himself and his pick-up truck. But you've got to admire his dogged persistence, which has paid off hugely. Congratulations to him, his family, and his supporters. If only he had a real organization and better prospects outside of Iowa.

If my Rick does drop out, Santorum will be the only hope for conservatives. I fear it's a slim one.

And if, God willing, Rick Santorum won the nomination, the muck that would fly from progressives who despise his undiluted Christian beliefs would be like nothing our country has ever seen.

Erick Erickson sees the Iowa results as a failure for the Tea Party:

As you wake up this morning, the tea party has failed because it has surrendered itself into the hands of Romney, Santorum, or Gingrich — all of whom would use government to suit allegedly conservative ends, which is not conservative in and of itself. But by God Mitt Romney may now get the political beating everyone has been expecting him to get. Newt Gingrich has nothing left to lose. He can go Newtlear against the guy he sees as having destroyed him. Newt Gingrich can unleash unmitigated hell against MItt Romney and just like the attacks on Newt were true, they’ll all be true about MItt Romney too.

Read the rest. I don't agree that Gingrich can make headway going ultra-negative on Romney. Newt fanciers may admire his rhetorical abilities but he's not awfully attractive when he goes into attack mode.

Byron York examines Romney's close shave: Facing embarrassing Iowa loss, Romney squeaks by

Philip Klein writes that we should be worried (I am) because the real winner is most likely Obama.

Sister Toldjah fears this may be the start of Mittmentum.

So is it over, or is it just beginning?




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Just to be clear, I think Perry should stick it out through South Carolina, as he originally planned. He's already bought airtime and pledged to his Iowa supporters that he'd stay in through SC. It would be different if there were another limited-government candidate out there to throw support to, but there isn't, aside from [ahem] Ron Paul. Is that where the tea party vote went? Or has it entirely dissipated?

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Michele Bachmann, the other limited-government candidate, has called a press conference for 11:00.

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Many thanks to Michelle Malkin for the Buzzworthy link.

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