If you’ve just woken up, hoping to find out who won the Iowa caucus, then tough luck: they have lost the votes from two of the main counties, and Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are neck-in-neck on 25 per cent of the votes. Ron Paul has 21 per cent. As of 6am, there are reports that precincts have miscounted votes in a way that penalised Romney – but you don’t do recounts in a caucus. Some 122,106 votes have been counted and Romney and Santorum are just four votes apart. Even if Romney wins when the lost votes have been discovered, the closeness and farce of the lost/miscounted votes will be the main story of the day. It seems to be the perfect allegory for the Republican Party’s failure to find anyone capable of taking on Obama, whose victory in Iowa was so clear this time four years ago.
Update: Latest reports are that Romney has won by, erm, 14 votes.
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