The hot and heavy three way in Iowa between Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum lasted late into the night. The lead position went back and forth, but despite Santorum surging all over, Romney ultimately pulled out on top. A lack of caucus enthusiasm led to a tight sparring match between the three men. While Romney finished ahead of Santorum, he led by only 8 votes, 30,015 to 30,007. Paul cleaned up farther behind with 26,219 votes. The three way pulled away quickly from Gingrich and Perry. The latter, perhaps a sore loser, is returning to Texas to “assess” his campaign’s future. Michele Bachmann, unsurprisingly, was never really an active participant.

In some ways, Romney and Santorum ...