After NH Romney still on top!

Mitt Romney is still ahead of the pack. To recap, Romney came in second in Iowa, first in Wyoming, and close second in New Hampshire. The big story here is Romney still leads in over all delegates, what actually get you the nomination. Remember eight years ago when McCain won in New Hampshire, Michigan, and elsewhere. George W. Bush still won the majority of Republican votes. Bush played that card effectively as he marched towards the eventual GOP nomination.

Also, many say he's lost cause he out spent his opponents and it hasn't reaped a win. Romney has spent more money because he is not a house hold name like McCain or Guliani. He's had to get his message out there buy spending money on adds and trips to the states. I wrote about this previously here.

Below is the breakdown:

By the popular vote.

Romney - 30% - 103,247
McCain - 29% - 101,637
Huckabee - 19% - 66,638
Paul - 9% - 29,469
Giuliani - 7% - 23,955
Thompson - 5% - 18,684

The only other criteria–and the most important one for that matter–is overall delegate count.

Romney - 30 (42%)
Huckabee - 21 (30%)
McCain - 10 (14%)
Thompson - 6 (8%)
Paul - 2 (3%)
Giuliani - 1 (1%)
Hunter - 1 (1%)

.

Folks this is a long haul race not something decided on few states. Rush Limbaugh outlined it well

I want to remind all my Republican friends that there are many states after Iowa and New Hampshire where the Republican populations are far more indicative of the conservative base, and to get caught up in what happened in Iowa, to get caught up in what's going to happen in New Hampshire as though they're the only two states that matter and that they're going to determine the fallout on both parties is a little bit over the top.

Iowa is a caucus; it's a weird setup. New Hampshire allows independents to vote in the Republican primary, which is why McCain is doing as well as he is doing, and it's why the media want this to be a bellwether against Romney. I mean, Pat Buchanan came in second. He came in a very strong second in New Hampshire in 1992. Now, I'm not saying that these contests are not to be taken seriously here, and that they're not to be fought and to be won, but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. New Hampshire is no longer the conservative barometer it used to be. The state has changed, it is now quite liberal. A lot of people who used to live in Massachusetts have moved into New Hampshire to escape high taxation and other problems. New England generally the northern states, states like Iowa, is not where the conservative base resides in large numbers.

Funny the way the media and pundits report it, Romney is a dead duck...didn't they say the same about George Bush?