First culling: With Iowa, the thinning of the GOP field begins
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Some 122,000 Iowa Republicans caucused Tuesday night and dubbed Mitt Romney, among the party's presidential candidates, their first choice by a mere eight votes over Pennsylvania's ex-Sen. Rick Santorum.
Each received an inconclusive 25 percent of the tally. Ron Paul garnered 21 percent, Newt Gingrich 13 percent and Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Jon Huntsman took disappointingly low percentages. The next day, Ms. Bachmann quit the race; Mr. Perry regrouped at home in Texas and tweeted that he will focus on the Jan. 21 primary in South Carolina; Mr. Huntsman had written off Iowa weeks ago to concentrate on next Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.
Even though the number of caucusing Iowans was about the same as the population of Mercer County, Pa., and as a group were whiter, older, more homogeneous religiously and probably more prosperous than America as a whole, their vote was still significant.
So what do Iowa's results mean? The Republican winnowing process is under way. The low numbers reaped by Mr. Perry, Mr. Huntsman and possibly Mr. Gingrich could lead to more drop-outs later this month.
The next decisive steps will be the New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida primaries, which could indicate who President Barack Obama's opponent will be in November. Iowa showed that Mr. Romney can win, even if only by a whisker, in America's middle flatland. New Hampshire will be a test of northeastern voters; South Carolina, the south; and Florida, a larger and more heterodox urban and rural state. By the time the country has the Florida results on Jan. 31, the Republican picture should be clearer, unless new candidates enter the race.
Pennsylvanians were left puzzled by the finish near the top achieved in Iowa by Mr. Santorum, given this state's 18-point rejection of him for a third term as senator. Comebacks are a part of American lore, but voters here had taken a close look before turning him out of office in 2006.
First Published January 5, 2012 12:00 am
