So much for all the “making history” chutzpah of the Romney campaign — and their pet news media — on the night of the New Hampshire primary, when pundits were spellbound by a GOP candidate for president winning both the Iowa caucuses and that night’s first-in-the-nation event in the state where Mitt lives and governed next door.

Romney actually lost Iowa to Rick Santorum.

Ron Paul may not be on a path to winning the Republican party’s presidential nominee but the strength of his campaign is making a serious statement about American politics and the potential future of the Republican Party.

Now that we have the first set of entirely post-Iowa polling numbers in New Hampshire we can see that Rick Santorum’s extremely close second place finish in the caucuses gave him a big bump in support.

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.

To the extent Santorum can make this a race, he’s helped by winnowing the field. Michele Bachmann cancelled planned events in South Carolina and will hold a press conference back in Iowa this morning. Similarly, Rick Perry, in his campaign concession speech, said he would go back to Texas and “reassess” the results.

The big story for the 1,500 media members scurrying around Iowa trying to find something for cable news to shout about for the next few hours is that Newt Gingrich called Mitt Romney a liar, accusing Romney of illegal coordination with the Super PACs that firebombed Newt’s candidacy with negative ads in Iowa. But the problem is the unfettered secret Super PACs themselves.

The latest polls show a three-way race between Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Movement toward Santorum sprung from one poll, from CNN, which sampled only Republicans, despite the ease of same-day party registration in Iowa and the expectation of up to 20-25% of the caucus electorate being composed of Democrats and independents.

The $6 billion-a-year ethanol subsidy really will expire in a matter of days. But that may not spell the end of ethanol-based tax credits. Specifically, the $1.01-a-gallon production tax credit for cellulosic ethanol – made from switchgrass or wood chips or corn husks – is a priority for the renewable fuels industry. That production tax credit does not expire until next year, and the industry wants a five-year extension.

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.

Another day means another new poll of the Iowa caucuses and it is more good news for Mitt Romney. According to the Marist/NBC poll Mitt Romney leads in the state followed by Ron Paul in a close second. From Marist.