Blog author's comments - The voting in Iowa is over. But the race is far from over. There are 2,286 convention delegates, so the delegates selected by Iowans is very small. The next two states to vote are New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Michele Bachmann has dropped out and Rick Perry may choose to pass on New Hampshire because Romney appears to be a heavy favorite there and campaign in South Carolina. If Perry does not do well in South Carolina he may be the next candidate to drop out.
Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum finished very close with Ron Paul third and Newt Gingrich fourth. Santorum surged at the right time but Iowa is just one state of many.
The attack ads against Gingrich mainly from Romney did what they were intended to do. The Washington Post says that only 40% of the Iowa ads were aimed at Gingrich. I have seen higher figures.
Newt Gingrich will probably now focus his efforts towards Romney, comparing his record in the House of Representatives and Speaker of the House against Mitt Romney as Governor of Massachusetts. I believe Gingrich may be angry because of the many ads by Romney against him.
Who knows what Santorum will do in other states? If Gingrich goes after Romney, Santorum could benefit from this. Voters could also be swayed by Gingrich and he could find himself as a favorite in other states.
When picking a Republican presidential nominee...the candidate obviously must be someone we would be comfortable with as our president but, can the nominee defeat Barack Obama? This is the difficult part of the election process and those who vote in a primary should choose wisely.
If whoever wins the GOP nomination does not defeat Obama in the 2012 election, America may well become a Socialist country. This may be our last chance.
