Michelle Bachmann won Ames today, narrowly defeating Congressman Ron Paul, but crushing third place finisher Tim Pawlenty. Bachmann’s big win in Iowa spells some real bad news for T-Paw, who invested quite a bit of money and effort into Ames, only to come up real short. The actual numbers:
Michelle Bachmann 4823
Ron Paul 4671
Tim Pawlenty 2293
Rick Santorum 1657
Herman Cain 1456
Rick Perry 718, (Write In)
Mitt Romney 567
Newt Gingrich 385
Jon Huntsman 69
Thad McCotter 35
A big win for Bachmann, but she failed to get the full media blast from the win, as Texas Governor Rick Perry big footed her by making his announcement in South Carolina. Perry’s clear attempt to step on Iowa may have created some resentment amongst Iowa Republicans, but it was good politics. The roll out was handled professionally, with Perry flying up to New Hampshire from S.C. and doing another event there that got great media coverage. Perry will be well financed, and he has to be considered as a real threat to Mitt Romney. In Iowa Perry, as a write in, managed to best Romney, who did not participate. Maybe insignificant, but I would venture to say that Romney may need to slightly recalibrate overall campaign strategy. With Perry looking to take the space currently occupied by Bachmann it would appear that she may have to recalibrate as well. The slugfest between Bachmann and Perry should be quite a donnybrook. Whatever that result Perry will find out that Bachmann is no Kay Bailey Hutchinson. She will hit, and hit hard.
Some little known facts about Perry. He is a former Democrat, and was the Chairman of the Al Gore for President organization (1988 version) in Texas. He has also referred to Social Security as a “failure”. Now the Republicans have a race, and Mitt Romney may, for the first time, start to show some sweat on the brow.
Bill Manzi.com 
Your Honor,
How do you think Perry will do against Obama assuming the unemployment rate does not get below 8%?
Jules
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