• Location: Chilliwack, BC
• Mood: amused
• Music: Devo-"Whip It"

Romney by a Whisker

As you're probably all aware, Mitt Romney won the Iowa Caucuses yesterday by the narrowest of margins. Technically, when it comes down to what really matters, i.e. convention delegates, it was a three-way tie between Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. Here are the final results according to CNN:

Mitt Romney-30,015 (25%)-7 delegates
Rick Santorum-30,007 (25%)-7 delegates
Ron Paul-26,219 (21%)-7 delegates
Newt Gingrich-16,251 (13%)-2 delegates
Rick Perry-12,604 (10%)-2 delegates
Michelle Bachmann-6,073 (5%) 0 delegates
John Huntsman-745 (less than 1%) 0 delegates



The closest previous margin of victory in a GOP presidential contest was 257 in 1936, when Alf Landon won the 1936 South Dakota primary. In 2008, President Barack Obama earned the closest-ever margin in a U.S. presidential contest, defeating Hillary Clinton by seven votes in the Guam caucus.

This morning Michelle Bachmann has announced that she is withdrawing from the race. Rick Perry spoke about considering his options last night, but this morning he tweeted his supporters with the message "Here we come South Carolina."

Next Tuesday (January 10, 2012), Republicans in New Hampshire will go to the polls for their state primary. Although only 12 delegates are chosen in the New Hampshire primary, its real importance comes from the massive media coverage it receives.

Of the 25 pledged delegates at stake in Iowa, (of which Romney, Santorum and Paul have each won seven, with Gingrich and Perry winning two) the winning candidate still has a long way to go. It will take 1,144 delegates to win the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, this summer, during the week of August 27th.

Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, President Barack Obama received all of his party's delegates in Iowa. He won the Democratic Iowa Caucuses where he was unopposed.