Romney squeaks a win while Santorum gets a huge moral victory

The race for the US presidency started last night with Iowa the first battleground in the fistfight to the White house. Mitt Romney overcame rival, Rick Santorum by eight votes in the closet caucus battle the state has seen since George Bush Sr defeated Ronald Regan in 1988 by 2 points. The result is a blow to Romney as he had hoped to gather early momentum to steam roll his way to the nomination in rapid fire time. Questions still surround Romney's conservatism with fellow nomination hunter, Newt Gingrich calling Mitt a liar earlier this week. “He’s not telling the American people the truth,’’ Gingrich said. “It’s just like his pretence that he’s a conservative.’’



Santorum who had gathered support in the days leading up to the Caucus is the main beneficiary from those who doubt Romney's conservative credentials. The New York Times reported that Santorum got the nod from voters who ranked being a "True Conservative" as their number one character trait in a candidate. Santorum a vocal pro-Life support and openly devout evangelical Christian is much more palatable to conservative republicans than the Mormon and pro abortion rights Romney.



However, what Romney perceivably lacks in conservative values, he more than makes up for in organisation and money. The former governor of Massachusetts, has a huge war chest to go to battle with and while he had hoped to separate himself from the pack quickly sources in the Romney camp have reiterated the fact the he is prepared to go state to state to gather up every single vote.



With a strong lead in the next primary in New Hampshire, and the fact that Romney was the recipient of the highest percentage of votes from those who viewed a candidate to beat Obama as most important he is still the favourite to be the man chosen to face off against Obama come election night. The Iowa primary could yet prove to be a tiny blip on the radar but with Santorum emergence as a strong contender Romney could be dragged into having to address his social conservatism ideals in a bid to win over conservatives in his party's electoral base.



That is a conversation Romney wants to avoid at all costs. His appeal is that of a somewhat liberal Republican. A candidate who could appeal to independent voters and thus pose a real threat to president Obama. Yet, by not addressing those issues Romney runs the risk of sitting on the sidelines come election time a potential case of damned if you do damned if you don't.