In the early hours of Wednesday morning (1:35 Central Time), Mitt Romney was officially declared the winner of the 2011 Iowa Caucus(es) narrowly edging out Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum… by 8 votes.
I had Romney winning (at 23%), but I’m certain no one out there had it finishing this close – and I guarantee you no one in the Romney camp had 25% to 25% in the campaign “office pool.”
Any way you spin it. It’s a victory for Governor Romney. It’s probably just a bigger – or at least more significant – victory for Rick Santorum. Mr. 25% got his 25%. Until a month ago, Santorum was Mr. Margin of Error.
The Romney camp will proudly claim the victory as they prepare to move forward and on to New Hampshire; and they should. I don’t mean any disrespect to Romney or his camp by saying that it was a bigger night for Santorum. I’m just being real about things here. Santorum is now the “Non-Romney.” He may not have been the first choice; but he is the current choice, and probably the last choice.
And things won’t get any easier for Romney as he heads to The Granite State. Jon Huntsman awaits him there and Gingrich is reloading and appears ready to launch a retaliatory assault on the Iowa winner. With a third place finish in the bag and an ideological divide between them, Ron Paul supporters won’t be flocking his direction; and a week ago Santorum could easily be dismissed as “unelectable.” Not so much anymore. Like Santorum said Tuesday night, “Game On!!”
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Funny side note. Fox News reported that Romney staffers were preparing a teleprompter for Mitt’s speech, but after Santorum proudly stated during his speech that he never speaks from notes, the Obama-prompter was scrapped. A pretty good speech from Romney, considering.
[...] Mitt Romney Wins Iowa Caucus By 8 Votes; Santorum Second [...]
[...] told nobody wants – just became the first Republican candidate (non-incumbent) to win both Iowa and New Hampshire since Gerald Ford. Stop the presses.“Tonight we celebrate, tomorrow we go [...]