COMMENTARY | In the end, it was an eight-vote superiority that won Iowa for Mitt Romney, but the real news to me was the surge that former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum had in the past few days. Romney had everything to gain with a solid victory in Iowa, but instead he failed to secure a strong enough victory to stave off a crowded field of candidates as we head to New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Let’s be honest: Santorum came out of nowhere to basically capture the hearts of Iowans. He led the vote tallies most of the night and, in the end, dropped to second place by a meager eight votes, The Ticket reported. That is, for all intents and purposes, a tie with Romney — the only man to consistently remain in the top tier throughout last year’s polling.
I’m not sure where Santorum’s support comes from. It will be interesting to review the post-voting analytics, but I suspect Iowa Republicans are just not entirely convinced of Romney’s conservatism. Santorum should get enough mileage out of Iowa to head for next week’s New Hampshire primary, although I doubt it will be sufficient to place him in the top three there.
The second surprise of the night was the utterly disappointing third place showing that Ron Paul made. With all the noise and vocal support his followers spew, I would have suspected he would finish in the top two. In reality, he never quite competed against Romney and Santorum in a state that should have been his to win, proving that his ideas are not mainstream enough to capture the votes of enough Republicans to secure the nomination. Associated Press reported that Paul intends to continue his campaign riding on his claim of being one of “three winners.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is heading back to Austin to re-evaluate his campaign. Rep. Michele Bachmann, former ambassador Jon Huntsman and Rep. Ron Paul need to join him in re-evaluating theirs. It’s time to weed out the candidates that have no reasonable chance of winning. Time, resources and energy need to focus on the candidate that can lead the party — even as divided as it may be at the moment.