We’re reading the (fairly unreliable) entrance poll tea leaves. Listening to the conversation on CNN, they just noted that 37% of the caucus-goers made their decision in the last “few days.” 12% made up their mind today. Taking the total of 37%, that’s 7% more than in 2008 when Mike Huckabee came out of nowhere and won.
In a climate of Santorumentum, that’s got to be good news for Rick Santorum.
The real tell is going to be how much support gets mopped up by Bachmann, Perry, et al.
Late Update: The entrance poll for the early arrivals report like this: Paul 24, Romney, 24, Santorum 18, Gingrich 13. Again, these entrance polls have an imperfect record. And this is the first wave. There’s another report for the late arrivers. That’s still to come. A little disappointing for Santorum. But my recollection is that in 2008 Romney won the early arrivers too. And then of course he lost.
8:25 PM: Karl Rove’s take on which counties to watch tonight. See our county by country live results here.
Video excerpts from the election night speeches of Mitt Romney and Ron Paul after the 2008 Iowa caucus, when Romney finished second and Paul fifth: Read More
In addition to the top-line Iowa results at the upper right of the TPM home page, we also have the full election (caucus) scoreboard with county-by-county results right here.
The Iowa hype finally went through the roof today… and TPM’s Michael Lester boiled down all the breathless chatter into a sizzling 100 seconds.
First we learn there’s no Santa, now we hear that we can’t believe Twitter ‘verified’ accounts?
Inside the heart-rending Wendi Deng Murdoch twitter (non) tragedy.
Iowa is just a preview of the flood of ‘Super Pac/Citizens United’ money coming this Fall.