Appearing on MSNBC Wednesday morning, Huntsman called the Iowa results “unbelievably ambiguous” and said that “a lot of people are still looking for an alternative. ... They want new leadership.”
Though Santorum’s old-fashioned, shoe-leather approach to campaigning paid off in Iowa, the question now is how far he can go from here, given his lack of resources and the need to ramp up a national organization.
Go behind the scenes of an Iowa caucus in Montezuma, where the Mahaffey family, along with friend and first-time caucus participant Steven Johnson, come together under the roof of the county courthouse to take part in "participatory politics," with each casting a vote for a different candidate.
Post-game analysis of Iowa caucuses
Santorum also will come under the kind of scrutiny and criticism that he was spared when the other contenders did not view him as a threat. Paul, for instance, has already branded Santorum “very liberal,” and Perry has described the former senator as “addicted to earmarks.” For his part, Santorum has said Paul is “disgusting,” and he blamed Paul’s campaign for automated phone calls in which voters were told that the vehemently antiabortion Santorum was, instead, more supportive of abortion rights.
Though Romney’s Iowa vote percentage was almost precisely what he got in 2008, the fragmentation of the field meant that he was spared the kind of defeat he suffered four years ago. This time, he had made a far more modest effort in the state. As he noted Tuesday night, his Iowa staff of five was less than one-tenth the size of his operation in 2008.
And both Paul, a libertarian whose views are out of line with those of most Republicans, and Santorum, an underfinanced social conservative, will struggle to prevail against Romney in the long run.
But the results also point to the fact that the Republican base remains deeply dissatisfied with Romney, whose moderate record has engendered mistrust among conservatives.
They appear unconvinced by Romney’s argument that he is the most electable of the candidates, and that his record as a business executive and corporate turnaround artist would be the ideal contrast against a vulnerable incumbent president whose chief liability is an ailing economy.
But it appears that for the first time in this campaign, Romney is about to come under intense attack by his opponents, which could further roil — and prolong — the race.
Gingrich, whose political career has been defined by a take-no-prisoners approach to his adversaries, has until recently refrained from criticizing the front-runner. But over the past few days, he has taken a sharply negative tone — one that he appears certain to amplify as the contest moves forward. In an interview Tuesday on CBS, he called Romney “a liar.”
His campaign bought a full-page ad in Wednesday’s Manchester, N.H, Union-Leader headlined “The Choice.” It describes the former speaker as a “Bold Reagan Conservative,” and Romney as a “Timid Massachusetts Moderate.”
For all the attention the Iowa caucuses receive as the first contest of the nominating season, they have been an unreliable predictor of which GOP candidate will ultimately receive the nomination in races where there is not an incumbent president.
Since the caucuses first rose to prominence in the 1970s, only two winners — Sen. Robert J. Dole in 1996 and Texas Gov. George W. Bush — have gone on to become their party’s standard-bearers.
Past Iowa contests have, however, cleared the field of its weaker performers such as Bachmann. The next potential casualty is Perry, who entered with great fanfare in August, quickly rising to the top of the polls and raising millions. Perry proved to be a disaster in debates, however, in a year when those nationally televised forums played an outsized role in the primary race.
The three candidates in the top tier have distinct constituencies, ones that echo broader divisions within the GOP.
Caucus-night polling suggests that Romney was the strongest performer among voters whose top priority is beating Obama. According to preliminary numbers, he won nearly half of all such voters, more than double the number selecting any other candidate.
Romney also fared relatively well among moderates and liberals, even as he slipped among the most conservative caucus-goers compared with his performance four years ago.
Caucus-goers who described themselves as “very conservative” broke for Santorum, according to the polling. The former senator also emerged as the newest darling of the tea party political movement, picking up 30 percent of strong tea party backers, with four other candidates in the teens.
The senator surged in the closing days of the campaign and won a plurality among those saying they made their final decision on Tuesday.
Paul, who won only one Iowa county in 2008, was buoyed by strong support among younger voters and independents, with both groups making up a larger share of caucus-goers than they did four years ago.
Rucker reported from New Hampshire. Polling director Jon Cohen in Washington and staff writers Amy Gardner, Rosalind S. Helderman, Nia-Malika Henderson and Karen Tumulty in Iowa and New Hampshire contributed to this report.
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