It is being reported that the final results are in for the Iowa Caucus and the winner is Mitt Romney with Rick Santorum coming out of nowhere these past few days finishing in a close second place taking with just eight votes less than the winner. The good congressmen Ron Paul took third which I assure you will have all the talking heads on the radio (who feared he might win) praising the results of the primary and their accuracy in reflecting how the rest of the nation will vote. This after they spent the better part of their programs yesterday invalidating the potential results in case that Ron Paul won. Limbaugh and Hannity will undoubtedly spend a large portion of their shows toting the fact that Ron Paul did not win and how this is a major upset for the campaign.
But I would like to take a minute to analyze the results of this primary and how it truly has a slim chance of making a huge impact on the winner of the GOP Presidential Nomination. There are only two repeat candidates from 2008 – Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. In 2008 Mitt Romney took second place, winning this year you might be led to believe he is better off than before, but when you look that the facts you will find that Romney took in 30,015 votes in 2012 and in 2008 he took in 30,021. This year Romney took in six votes less than he did four years ago. He is actually losing support. Now sure its only six measly votes and I am sure hundreds of people who voted for him in 2008 died in the last four years and hundreds more became eligible to vote creating a bit of a fluctuation, but let’s look at the other side of the token considering the same variation. In 2008 Ron Paul finished in 5th place with only 11,841 votes, this year he took third with 26,219 votes. So while Romney lost votes, Ron Paul’s support has more than doubled in just four years time.
To me this is a huge sign that the American people are beginning to wake up. The RINO’s in the party are maintaining approximately the same amount of support, but the authentic conservative movement of small government, free markets and individual liberty is growing by leaps and bounds. Iowa is a very important state because it is the first and most Americans look to Iowa and wait until the final vote is tallied before they even start looking at the candidates. But just because Santorum and Romney took first and second does not give them any sort of speakable edge over Paul. Moreover, Paul’s third place finish does not put him out of the running. I would remind you that John McCain finished fourth in Iowa in 2008 with just 15,536 votes and he went on to win the nomination. Most people didn’t expect him to go anywhere but he maintained top three and top five finishes in most of the primary elections and it was that steady support that put him over the top in the end. This year Paul earned more votes than the 2008 GOP nominee did in Iowa and that’s enough hope for me. This race is far from finished. Paul was one of three candidates on the ballot come the Pennsylvania Primary in 2008, and I predict he will be one of two this election cycle.