It is true, that as was the case with Hillary in 2008, Iowa was considered such an atypically hard state that they might have been better off skipping it.

I have been astonished that the media has been so in Romney's camp that they took what was better termed a "tie" in Iowa and a win in a state that was always thought to be his and pushed him as unbeatable. To get an idea of how strange that is - look at 2004. In that case, Kerry had a solid win in Iowa (38%), not an 8 person win and had won NH. Although the media did say he was the frontrunner, they also had many articles introducing and humanizing John Edwards - some suggesting that on the first multistate day, which included states that were a better fit for a Southern populist than a NE liberal, he could emerge victorious. In fact, that would be somewhat similar to what Clinton did after a 2nd place finish in NH (Iowa went to favorite son Harkin).

It would be funny, if it wasn't so pitiful. You can't fix stupid.

that runs all kinds of shenanigans-tainted elections at the same time you insist on passing all kinds of ridiculous new laws under the premise of making the voting process absolutely simon-pure and "fraud-free"!

about these new results every time he gets in front of a microphone...

Then there will be many winner take all states. In Iowa, they have a complicated process - but Romney got 13 and Santorum got 12. Oddly Paul was shut out - http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iCzT9dwxZNsn6U3XOK3v9BCpHVBA?docId=5e4add38df9240d5bd230cf6d65bba24 I don't know if this changes now that Santorum is the winner.

In NH. Romney got 7, Paul got 3, and Huntsman got 2.

What you can see is that - in terms of delegates - it is not too late for others to win, though the media wants to coronate Romney.

"Iowa Republicans use a multi-step process to elect national delegates, starting with local caucuses. In Iowa and other caucus states, the AP uses the results from local caucuses to calculate the number of national delegates each candidate will win, if the candidates maintain the same level of support throughout the process."

Besides the "beauty contest" for the candidates, there is a later caucus vote to elect delegates to the country level, which elect delegates to the state level, which elect delegates to the national level.

So it matters more who's proponents stayed on for the later vote and how this process works out over time.

Nate Silver

@fivethirtyeight The 8 caucus sites that Iowa says it lost and cannot certify, Santorum won 81-46 based on election night counts.

So Santorum won by around 69 votes.