As we get up this moring, the Iowa tally has Romney 8 votes ahead of Santorum, 30,015 to 30, 007. A squeaker at 25% each. Paul came in at 22, Newt got 14, Perry 11 and Bachmann 5.
Over at Red State, Mr. Erickson isn't happy with the results-
Bachmann, the Iowa native, won not a single county. Even Rick Perry won two counties. Bachmann must drop out. Frankly, it makes sense for Perry to do so as well except for one issue.
If Rick Perry drops out of the race it will be the ultimate failure of the tea party movement to see the race come down to two or three big government conservatives. Romney and Santorum both hide behind compassionate conservatism to expand the state to suit their purposes. Only Rick Perry has run a campaign to make Washington “as inconsequential to our lives as possible.”
The Tea Party is roughly equal parts secular libertarian and Christian free-marketers. The latter has a champion in Ron Paul, who's 22% showing in Iowa keeps in well in the mix for delegates even as he has little chance of actually getting the nomination.
The former started to coalesce around Herman Cain before his campaign imploded, but never settled on a second choice after that. A Perrymann fusion would have gotten a solid 16% and finished fourth, but wouldas, couldas and shouldas always take three to five strokes off your golf game.
Perry has a shot at taking a deep breath and taking one last shot at it in South Carolina. However, it might prove to be a suicide mission that would kill off everyone but Romney and Paul once the dust settles.
If Perry goes out gracefully, we're left with Ron Paul and three folks who are center-left within the GOP, at least on economics. 63% of the Iowa electorate voted for that troika and only 37% voted for Tea Party-friendly candidates. That doesn't please conservatives, but that's where we are at present. Compassionate conservatism sold better than either dispassionate conservatism or passionate ....[must....delete ...pejorative] ...Paulism.
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