Keeping-in-mind the state's pitiful track record at picking eventual Republican presidential nominees, here's considering the Iowa Caucus results and what they mean
(if anything):
(if anything):
Santorum and Romney are locked in a dead-heat late into the night, nearing 25% of the vote each. Romney appears to be pulling into the lead with a late surge, though.
Ron Paul is third and Newt a battle-weary fourth, the take-away for Team Doughboy being "attack ads work", shame that it is.
The rest are left licking wounds and re-assessing hopes in the wake of disappointing finishes, particularly Michele Bachmann (who actually won the Iowa Staw Poll five months ago) and
snotty liberal-Republican John Huntsman with 742 votes (lol):
Ron Paul is third and Newt a battle-weary fourth, the take-away for Team Doughboy being "attack ads work", shame that it is.
The rest are left licking wounds and re-assessing hopes in the wake of disappointing finishes, particularly Michele Bachmann (who actually won the Iowa Staw Poll five months ago) and
snotty liberal-Republican John Huntsman with 742 votes (lol):
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| h/t Right Klik |
How many people voted in this one small
state deep in the heart of Korn Kountry?
Results are still coming in this year, but last time in 2008 a grand total of 119,188 people -only 4% of the population of sparsely-populated Iowa- took part in the caucus process that selected Mike Huckabee (Super Bowl XLV attendance was 103,000+)
Alas, the caucuses are not even representative of the state's Republicans as a whole: later that same year (2008),
John McCain received 677,000 presidential votes in the Iowa...
5x the total number of caucus-goers. And paltry sums seen in the (above) chart appear almost identical to 2008's Iowa turnout.
That means this Iowa vote that a ludicrous amount of importance is being slathered upon -with some deeming certain campaigns rendered "confident", "surging", or even "demoralized" by this minor event- represents the voice of just 4/100ths of one percent of the United States population, a mere gaggle that couldn't even half-fill the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
And the delegate count?
Even if Mittens pulls it off in Iowa and goes on to take New Hampshire (where he owns a home/enjoys a large lead), that would find him with just 12 delegates of the 1144 he needs for the GOP nomination... big whoop-dee-doo.
What's the landscape look like after that?
What's the landscape look like after that?
Newt Gingrich leads the RCP poll-of-polls nationally by 2.4%, continuing a rebound that began last week, and reversing a trend that Romney and pro-Romney PAC-men had instigated with their withering $3M attack-ad offensive. That unprincipled and largely dishonest effort was enough to have Mitt up 1.8% for a few days nationally, but the game's not going to work quite the same in the American south and southwest that dominates the primary schedule from NH-on. Newt's taking the gloves off... and southerners never much cottoned to Mittens in the first place.
Team Romney may soon come to regret how early they chose to go nuclear on Gingrich… he’ll come out both barrels blazing now, and woe be unto the unholy target. Romney should be easy to shred this way in the south, he’s not their kind of guy and all Newt has to do is remind them just why that is.
Polling suggests a possible Gingrich sweep of the south, with Newt up 16% in South Carolina and 7% in Florida. Nabbing that delegate jackpot would put the former Speaker instantly out-front, with the remaining primary schedule (south/west) overall friendly to Gingrich imho.
If you're expecting the 'Santorum Surge' to amount to anything from this point on, you're due for some disappointment: He doesn’t have the money or infrastructure to keep up with Romney in New Hampshire, and he hasn’t even been in South Carolina since early November. As I said yesterday, a vote for Santorum is a vote for Romney, in-effect.
Although fundraising should improve overnight and he'll be getting a lot more press now, Santorum will have to dramatically expand his campaign organization as fast as humanly possible. He may even be wise to abandon NH to concentrate on more-friendly environs of SC and Florida.
Trouble for him is, that's Gingrich Country...
Team Romney may soon come to regret how early they chose to go nuclear on Gingrich… he’ll come out both barrels blazing now, and woe be unto the unholy target. Romney should be easy to shred this way in the south, he’s not their kind of guy and all Newt has to do is remind them just why that is.
Polling suggests a possible Gingrich sweep of the south, with Newt up 16% in South Carolina and 7% in Florida. Nabbing that delegate jackpot would put the former Speaker instantly out-front, with the remaining primary schedule (south/west) overall friendly to Gingrich imho.
If you're expecting the 'Santorum Surge' to amount to anything from this point on, you're due for some disappointment: He doesn’t have the money or infrastructure to keep up with Romney in New Hampshire, and he hasn’t even been in South Carolina since early November. As I said yesterday, a vote for Santorum is a vote for Romney, in-effect.
Although fundraising should improve overnight and he'll be getting a lot more press now, Santorum will have to dramatically expand his campaign organization as fast as humanly possible. He may even be wise to abandon NH to concentrate on more-friendly environs of SC and Florida.
Trouble for him is, that's Gingrich Country...
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