Eight votes don’t mean much, but even had Mitt Romney lost out to Rick Santorum in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, he would still have emerged as the big winner last night. He didn’t lock up the nomination, but he acquired a key strategic advantage.
To beat Romney, you’ve got to get him one on one and win all the non-Romney votes out there. (They are not really anti-Romney, but they sure would prefer someone who had never been pro-choice and was not a Mormon.) Had Santorum not surged in Iowa, Newt Gingrich would now have Mitt one on one and could have done some serious damage.
But now, Santorum and Gingrich are about to split the same vote.