Step forward, the winner of the GOP Iowa Caucus

Not so fast there, Gov. Romney:

Mitt Romney stripped of Iowa win after recount

The Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney has suffered a setback when the party stripped him of his victory in Iowa after a final tally of votes.

His rival, the socially conservative former senator Rick Santorum, emerged with the most votes, a majority of 34.

The party was scheduled to make an official announcement but the Des Moines Register reported its findings hours earlier.

Yup, apparently figuring that the GOP couldn’t organize a piss-up in a brewery, the Des Moines Register preempted the party by looking into the results and making its own announcement:

Results from eight precincts are missing — any of which could hold an advantage for Mitt Romney — and will never be recovered and certified, Republican Party of Iowa officials told The Des Moines Register on Wednesday.

GOP officials discovered inaccuracies in 131 precincts, although not all the changes affected the two leaders. Changes in one precinct alone shifted the vote by 50 — a margin greater than the certified tally.

The certified numbers: 29,839 for Santorum and 29,805 for Romney. The turnout: 121,503.

It’s not a surprise that the ultra-thin gap of eight votes on caucus night didn’t hold up, but it’s tough to swallow the fact that there will always be a question mark hanging over this race, politics insiders said.

“Pah,” says Mitt. You can’t legislate against inevitability, vote-counting is something that should happen in quiet rooms between consenting adults, and anyway, why bother counting votes at all?

Romney said on Thursday the new tally showed it was “a virtual tie” between him and Santorum.

Meanwhile, Rick Perry will finally announce the suspension of his campaign today, and endorse ... go on, guess.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Gov. Rick Perry of Texas will end his bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday and endorse Newt Gingrich, two campaign officials confirmed, a decision that could influence the South Carolina primary on Saturday.

Which is very sad, as he’ll miss all the fun of tonight’s debate, where Mitt is reeling in the heady reek of continuing revelations about his tax affairs.

Newt has too many other things on his mind to bask in the reflected glory of that coveted Perry endorsement. Hell having no fury, for instance:

ABC News plans to air an interview with the second wife of Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich on “Nightline” just two days before the GOP’s South Carolina primary.

Excerpts from the interview with Marianne Gingrich will be released during the day Thursday, ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said, ahead of both a Republican candidate debate Thursday evening in Charleston,...

It looks like the GOP took my recent chiding to heart and is going all-out for entertainment value and comedy in the final stretch.

POPCORN!

Posted by YAFB on 01/19/12 at 09:51 AM • Permalink

Well, Booman’s all over that, Xecky.

It’s more about the narrative of inevitability. Romney was claiming a “historic” double win after the initial results were announced:

US election 2012: Mitt Romney completes historic Iowa-New Hampshire double win
...
Mr Romney became the first Republican challenger in the modern primary system’s 35-year history to win both New Hampshire and the Iowa caucus, establishing a formidable lead in the contest to pick a candidate to face Barack Obama in November’s presidential election.

“Tonight, we made history,” he told supporters at a victory rally in Manchester, where he promised to “restore America to the founding principles that made this country great”.

Al Gore has words for Rick Santorum.

If you want a little preview of what will likely come out in the ABC News interview with Marianne Gingrich check this interview that Esquire wrote up in 2010.  (Back when Newt was just another has-been working the Sunday morning shows and nobody else was paying that much attention to him.)  It is not, not, a pretty picture.  But then I don’t think any of us thought it was.  ;-)

The revelation that Willard has been stashing $$$ in the Caymans is also pretty interesting.  He may have legitimately invested after-tax dollars over there but a lot of high rollers stash the money over there before being taxed on it in the U.S. and it never gets taxed until they bring it back onshore.  In Willard’s case he might never need the money here.  Perfectly legal if he follows the rules (which are complex but he can afford the pricey attorneys) but again, not a pretty picture.

http://www.popcorn.org/AboutUs/Media/NationalPopcorn Day/tabid/115/Default.aspx

Confirmed that Jan 19th is National Popcorn Day.

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