It’s a close one:
Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney waged a seesaw battle for supremacy in Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses late Tuesday night, the opening round of a campaign to pick a challenger to President Barack Obama.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul ran third.
Returns from 93 percent of the state’s 1,774 precincts showed Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, and Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, in a near dead heat, a fitting conclusion to a race as jumbled as any since Iowa gained the lead-off position in presidential campaigns four decades ago.
With 93% reporting:
Santorum: 25%
Romney: 25%
Paul: 21%
Gingrich: 13%
Perry: 10%
Bachmann: 5%
Huntsman: 1%
Sarah Palin didn’t endorse anyone, and to my chagrin she said people shouldn’t marginalize Ron Paul:
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
**smacks forehead**
Yes, some of his fiscal policies are great but if there was ever a candidate that needed to be marginalized it’s Ron Paul. Can’t agree with Sarah on this one.
Update:
Based on a county-by-county extrapolation of precincts that have yet to report, the final total would be Mr. Romney 30,286 votes, Mr. Santorum 30,201 votes. Needless to say, it may still be some time before this race gets called.
However, even though Mr. Santorum has a very small lead right now, the remaining precincts look to be ever so slightly more favorable to Mr. Romney.
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