12.30 pm. Two last things: McCain will endorse Romney tomorrow. And Frum takes on Kristol:
Bill Kristol saying this is a real race in NH between Romney and Santorum. No it's not. Birth control pretty popular outside Iowa. 12.22 pm. Santorum starts by quoting C.S. Lewis, movingly, about his wife. Then it's on to God and Iowa. As Romney overtakes him in the count. I want to sleep now.12.19 am. A word from Radley Balko:Was already clear, but GOP establishment reaction to Paul tonight confirms that party's most important issue is promotion of perpetual war. Perpetual pre-emptive war - and the national security state to buttress it.12.17 am. A reader writes about Bachmann's concession speech:
The definition of tone-deaf: The entire country thinks your husband is gay, and the cute little anecdote you choose to pull out about him is that, while you were all campaigning, he was buying accessories for your dog.12.15 am. Geraghty, pooping the party:
Btw, man of the hour Rick Santorum did not file petitions in Virginia. Not "didn't file enough signatures"; didn't turn them in at all.
12.03 am. From my perusal of the counties yet to report, most of them have Romney slightly ahead. So it could still tighten or change - with about 100 votes or so currently between them. When it's that close, I don't think you can make a huge deal out of the actual winner. But Romney could well still win this.
I suspect that this event has rather indeed winnowed the field, with Perry and Bachmann heading for the exit, Ron Paul headed for more delegates and a possible third party run, Romney doing a little worse than he did last time around. But fair's fair: Santorum is the big surprise and the big winner. He has coalesced the evangelical vote behind him, and given the religious nature of the current GOP, that matters.
But how remarkable that the Tea Party infused GOP has picked two of the most fiscally liberal candidates as their final two. Now Newt and Santorum will savage Romney; and the press will expose Santorum. Paul will have his delegates and will have to be handled right if he is not to indirectly re-elect Obama in a landslide.
11.59 pm. Perry says he will go back to Texas and reassess his candidacy. That's big news. But he looks relieved in a way. If you out-spend your opponents by this vast amount and come in fifth, you really need to drop out. And it looks as if he will.
