This new certified vote total is hundreds of votes less than the total number of votes reportedly cast the day of the caucus. While this may be the certified results, we know for a fact it does not accurately represent all the votes cast that night because some votes have been left out of this total.

Before the Iowa caucus Santorum’s support in New Hamshire was only in the low single digits according to most polls; immediately after Iowa he jumped up to around 10 percent. But since then Santorum hasn’t managed to gain any additional support.

CBS/AP has a report on “Occupy the Iowa Caucus,” wondering what kind of influence Occupy had on the Iowa Caucus. The report concludes that while there were “attention-grabbing protests” in the run-up to the Caucus the outcome of the Caucus shows Occupy has not “matured into a political force,” mostly because it doesn’t behave like the Tea Party. So?

After a rather disastrous 6th place finish in Iowa, Michele Bachmann today decided to suspend her campaign for the Republican party’s presidential nomination. While Bachmann didn’t endorse anyone today, her dropping out of the race will likely be mildly good news for Rick Santorum, who did well with the same groups that voted for Bachmann.

The “best operative on the Romney campaign” had to explain how his guy managed to get only 25 percent and beat Rick Santorum by only 8 votes; it’s because of “Romney’s jobs message connected so strongly” in Iowa. Right.

The Iowa caucus was very good news for Rick Santorum. He effectively tied Mitt Romney for first place, losing to Romney by a margin of only eight votes. Santorum’s finish also greatly exceeded expectations. But it was an even better night for Mitt Romney, who may now be on a glide path to the nomination.

…And we’re off! The first results of Decision ’12 will be rolling in in about half an hour, and then it’s a quick ten-month sprint to the finish that I’m sure will just fly by!

Finally, after a very long campaign defined by too many debates, an endless parade of short lived surges to first place and frankly some incredible silliness combined with SuperPAC negative ads, people will actually start voting in Iowa on who will become the Republican party’s presidential nominee.

Despite the media talking up Rick Santorum’s rising numbers in Iowa over the past few days, all the public polling still has Mitt Romney and Ron Paul in the top two spots, with only one day until the Iowa Caucus.

Rick Santorum has managed to gain some traction in Iowa and move up to barely third place. While it is theoretically possible Santorum’s late advance might allow him to beat expectations in the Iowa caucuses, from a long term perspective Mitt Romney has little to fear even in the unlikely event of a big Santorum surge over the next few days.