>> welcome back to hour 6... [chuckles] >> this just sounds so good. >> of our iowa caucus coverage. no results yet, as far as who won. but we do have an update fur on the race. now we are told that karl rove's information was correct, that mitt romney's vote had indeed been undercounted, under reported, under reported in two counties and that we believe is the jump, narrowing the distance from 18 to 4 votes between mitt romney and rick santorum. now there is a four-vote

difference. we are waiting on one precinct in clinton county, we believe -- >> we believe it's about 75 votes. just getting word that karl rove has some big news to report out of new york, ahead to chris wallace. >> thanks so much. karl, have you gotten word from a source in the republican national committee. tell us what it is? >> first, they made the correction in story county, which moved it from an 18-point margin for santorum to a four-vote margin for santorum and the keokuk county precinct, the romny and santorum people have agreed what the count was and -- >> this is in clinton -- >> this is clinton county. the one outstanding precinct in the state and tell show an 18-vote victory in that precinct for mitt romney which will give him a statewide victory of 14 votes over rick santorum. >> i don't understand. you are saying that they have come to an agreement --

>> the official-- the person who got the official piece of paper is missing. but the romney and santorum people who are monitoring it agree on what the number is. so they're going to -- they basically agreed, we will confirm, both of us, the outcome in this particular precinct and the state party will accept that. >> now, you know, this is obviously pretty big news. you are saying that romney is going to win the iowa caucuses by 14 votes. how solid is your source? >> a pretty good, reliable source. >> you believe that the result i. they gave us earlier, the news about the story county, which moved it, as we just saw, in the most recent update from 18 santorum lead to a 4 santorum lead. iowa is very -- they do politic there is in a very polite fashion. if they came to a disagreement like this tonight, where they can't find the guy with the official piece of paper, they

apparently have rounded up the representatives of the camps who have agreed, yes, we were there, we know exactly what the total was and we both agree to what it was. >> so there you have it, bret and we should point out hathis source inside the republican national committee is the one who told karl early they're the two presimpghts were keokuk and clinton. that's exactly right -- >> confirmed that. we identified that -- >> excuse me. but they also told but the fact that story had been undercounted and that was also correct. and they are now saying that all sides of agreed that when the final precinct is counted that mitt romney is going to win the iowa caucus by 14 votes. back to you. >> wow. that is big news because officially, rick santorum is up by 4. so we will wait to hear that officially at the convention center in pol uke county. no preference has 135 votes in

this tally. jon huntsman has 744. and herman cain, 58. we are looking at possibly, if karl rove is correct, a 14-vote spread between first and second. >> if that's true, mitt romney has succeeded in doing what he could not do four years ago, which is win the iowa caucuses. does it matter? >> with a four-vote difference? >> i think it's probably going to be considered -- this night is a win for rick santorum because he came from so far behind. and also, just to give you a look at their speeches that haygave earlier. i think santorum did a really great job in his speech. he was touching. he hit the right notes. he focused on the blue-collar messages, which he has been doing throughout the campaign, which i think really connected. but can he replicate it? he has spent so much time in iowa and gone to every single

county and had 300-plus meetings. now he has to hop to new hampshire and try to replicate this. that's going to be the big challenge. >> mitt romney will come out tomorrow and say, i'm the winner. i won the iowa caucuses and rick santorum will say, i'm also a winner. what's the truth? i mean, can it be true that this was in fact, a victory for romney? when he won, if he won, by a 14-point margin. >> it's a victory for mitt romney. this isn't little kids soccer, if he got more votes, he won. and six weeks ago -- >> from the romney campaign, 6 weeks ago, people weren't giving them a clans of winning f. mitt romney won, he won. what's the story coming out of iowa? rick santorum. he was in single digits 2 weeks ago. he rose dramatically to essentially tie, even though he lost. and to have the kind of story

coming out of here, the momentum coming out of here, he wins the story, even if romney wins, technically, the vote. >> technically, it is not a primary state. it's a caucus. it is not a winner-take-all state. they have elected delegates. romney will get the same delegates, iemg sure from iowa, since they are virtually tied. so teltechnically, it is not like winning a primary. but it's better to get more votes than not and it's a beauty contest, but it's an important one. but the story is that romney has a real race ahead. they can spin this all they want. look. the great irony is that he will win iowa and probably win new hampshire. if we had said three weeks oorks ago, mitt romney would win iowa and new hampshire. he would lock up the race. but nobody thinks he will have the race locked up, even if he wins iowa and new hampshire. it's another great reversal of

conventional wisdom. if he wins iowa and new hampshire, and ends up in a real race, a real race. >> one of the untold stories out of iowa will be how much the romney campaign was trying to win, despite saying they weren't and how much was going on the ground with money and super pacs. and now coming out, possibly, it looks like a victory, but that will pay off in the long run? >> yeah, remember, this is his second time running. he had supporters already. he had his infrastructure in place. but he didn't really break much new ground and that tells you something about his candidacy, that people aren't that enthused about him. that the turnout didn't -- as far as we can tell, wasn't the projected 140,000 people were saying. you know? he is not -- he is not adding new voters. he is getting close to what he got last time. so that's good news, i think to

obama, when they look at this and they say, you know, there doesn't seem to be a lot of enthusiasm here, even though we for always hearing about how much the republicans don't like obama. they want to get rid of obama and how energized they are supposed to be. it doesn't seem that the person who is supposed to be the frontrunner is really energizing them. >> the story is that santorum did so well and came from nowhere. it's the drama for a week is santorum. we know romney will run a competent new hampshire campaign. he's 41% in the polls there. he is strong there with the endorsements, the senators, former governor sinunu. he has a second home there. the drama is can rick santorum, having come from nowhere in 10 days, rise in new hampshire? will the gingrich tax on romney have an effect? romney has had a charmed life here. romney has a little bit of

incidental fire, but not much compared to gingrich or some of the others. what happens on the debate saturday night? does romney pull out more endorsems? apparently senator mccain will endorse him and stomp on whatever rick santorum gets. but the story of the week is, what -- can rick santorum make the most of this moment in a way that perry, bachmann and gingrich couldn't make the most of their moments over the last few months. >> stand by, we are checking in with carl cam -- carl cameron. any reaction to the late-breaking news? >> reporter: not exactly. they have been striking the room for the better part of the last hour. it's over. we learned that the polling in iowa was fairly accurate. [no audio]. >> sorry, carl. >> reporter: sorry, i have a lot of noise in my ear. and i can't hear you. >> the polling in iowa was

fairly accurate. what is the romney game plan? i don't think he expected to be a run-away winner in the state of iowa. he has a lot of eggs in the new hampshire basket. what is his game plan to secure the nomination from this point? it's well worth analyzing the game plan here in iowa. at the beginning of the year, he made it clear he was not going to play hard and he was going to make a decision at the very last minute as to whether or not he would play to win. he only came to iowa a total of nim 9 times in the year. the last trip of a trip that lasted a week and-a-half. having said that -- chop. >> i think the up oners have come in, it looks like. >> it's come to this? >> reporter: so the point being missed, had mitt romney come to iowa, had mitt romney come to iowa a couple more times, he might have gotten more

than 14 votes. the other thing is, we shouldn't be too shocked by the close nature of this race. it was only 11 years ago that the general election ended in a tie in florida. of course, karl rove remembers that quite well with george bush locking it up in the sunshine state. >> all right. here -- i don't know if those are up oners. >> reporter: i don't know what to say about that. >> you might want to check that out. >> reporter: you know, they say the caucus is different. some say it can be meaningless. some say it's quirky. pick your adjective. >> reporter: it looks lying they are cheering somebody named sarah. i have covered the romney campaign for 5 1/2 years. this is america.

[laughter] >> carl cameron has been feeding us information all night long. some great stuff. and now to end this like, carl, your evening and morning, it's just not fair. but -- it's funny. >> reporter: thank you. we are doing the all-nighter and will be in manchester tomorrow, straight through to new hampshire. one thing about rick santorum's campaign, he is running an economic populist message with a culturally conservative message, an aphel blue-collar workers. that's a tableau of issue sets that will serve him very well in new hampshire. it's a state with a long, storied history of mill yard workers and blue-collar, catholic, work-a-day republicans and democrats. it's a coalition that pat buchanan, the former 96 an administration aide had great

success with 1996. pat buchanan beat bob dole, the senate majority leader in new hampshire with a similar message to what rick santorum has now. it should be said that back in '96, the union leader endoirsd buchanan and really went to bat for him. this time around, the largest newspaper in the state is with newt gingrich. the significance of the union leader means they will attack heavily mitt romney, with rick santorum offering that blue-collar, populist, culturally conservative message, santorum could have a significant week. >> we are getting some information in from the good folks at politico, tweeting they were romney aides, some had beers and the sarah chance was sarah craig, rom recommend's state director. we'll leave it to you to confirm or deny before you get to the plane-- >> reporter: no. i won't be joining them in the beers, maybe a couple of sleeping pills.

>> red bulls. thanks. carl, thank you. >> on the trail. campaign carl. we are just getting word that karl rove's story can be confirmed. fox news conif i wering that rove's report that there was an agreement and that mitt romney will win by 14 votes. that's confirmed by a second source now, we are waiting for the official word from the g. it's been a long time. but we have had a great time. a gorgeous building. we will be back after this short break.

>> it is 2 time of time 18 a.m. on the east coast. we believe we have a winner of the iowa caucuses. we are confirming here at fox news, via two sources that mitt romney has won the iowa caucuses by 14 votes, although we have yet to receive an official announcement from the republican national committee. that will come in moments, we believe, from the convention center. we hope, given that it's almost 3:00 a.m. eastern time. want to give you a scene setter here. it's to the point when people celebrate their candidates' win, we believe they are up on protest eshz. it's come to that. but this is the look at the convention center, where we think we will get the announcement from the party officials. we believe what happened, according to our information, one of the precincts captains in clinton county, misplaced or

something happened to his votes. nonetheless, he had a vote tally written down and the romney camp and the santorum camp, who had been better organized than many of the other camps, did have folks there, watching theitally and had agreed upon their candidates' final numbers in that precinct. so in the absence of the hard ballots, they went back to the romney camp and to the santorum camp and said, do you agree these are the numbers? we are told that both representatives said, we agree. that's how they were able to come up with a tally for that precinct, which gave mitt romney what we believe will be the final lead of 14 votes. here in the state capitol building, i don't know if you can pan out, there is -- i don't know, maybe eight people who have remained? there is abby, my assistant. there's anitta and tasha -- hair and makeup never leave.

a while ago, people were eating pizza on the set, except me. no one told me pizza was coming n. any event, that's what it has come to. we await the official, official tally. and the question for you guys is, what now? >> you are going to make us get serious after all of that? >> the buildup -- >> listen. no. honestly, we're talking about rick santorum. he did very well tonight. 7 days? is that enough to go from 4 to 41% in new hampshire to overcome mitt romney? >> that's a lot to make up, obviously. but think about the debates. the two debates, one saturday night and the one sunday morning, the one that fox is doing, that you are doing on january 16 in south carolina. think of the people who are going to be participating. mitt romney's relatively easy ride is over. he is going to have jon huntsman, who has been biting at his ankles throughout this process. he will have newt gingrich who,

we talked about is an angry, angry candidate, angry at mitt romney. he will have rick santorum, looking to distinguish him -- himself from romney, and will be calling himself the true conservative and mitt romney is a conservative of convenience and more poll tested and focus-group driven, which rick santorum has elliptically alluded to and then youville ron paul on the end. these are debates set up as very tough encounters for mitt romney over the next two weeks. >> is it true that -- are we assuming without evidence that mitt romney hasn't been the subject of attacks? it's true in the ad wars, although he would dispute that. but early on, when he was dead center, they were all going after him? >> yeah, but they have more increasingly seen that they should -- there was a sorts of an anti-romney person that they

wanted to be the top person for that. i think that he wasn't getting probably what he is alluding to is that he will be getting it so much worse than he has in the past. look, i think that the gingrich thing, he has been so transparent that he is so angry at romney. as i was saying earlier, it is not in any way strategic to go after him. it's just anger -- >> why is he so mad at romney and not ron paul? >> i think, well, he did actually take some time to attack ron paul as limp so i think he has anger at ron paul, but he's not a major player here. he doesn't see him as someone who can get the nomination. so he will probably attack ron paul as well. but romney's pac has gone after gingrich in an extremely vicious way. >> bill, we spent a long time, talking about the top two and the back and forth and the vote separation. we could have been talk about

this rest of the field, the finish for ron paul and newt gingrich and texas governor perry, who is reassessing his campaign in texas. what about the time we focused on the horse race and obviously, it is late, it's 2:22 eastern time. but still, we have spent a lot of time talking about those two people? >> we d. but that's the story here. i wouldn't have said this before tonight and i expected it -- iowa not to winnow as much as it has in the past. i think that bachmann and perry are likely to be out. i think newt is in a tough decision. what could rick santorum do -- i think it would be a mistake to assume that the momentum will carry me forward and i can show up in new hampshire and coast into the high teens. that might happen, but he has a long way to go. if i were santorum and i wouldn't want to count on newt gingrich. i think that romney could look attractive, if he's pummeled by an angry newt gingrich and romney responds in an

intelligent, dignified way. there is a debate saturday night and suspected morning. santorum says, that's great. but let's face it. if it was me and mitt, 14 votes apart, i would challenge him foa one-on-one debate on monday or a week later in south carolina. i think if i were santorum, i would be thinking of a way to really try to bring home and make concrete the notion that it's me and mitt. let's have a polite debate, open-ended debate, whatever and get out of this multiple mud throwing in different directions, which i think that santorum now probably needs -- i don't know if he needs to, but there might be a case for santor tom try to really make it a one-on-one race as quickly as he can and think about ways to do that. >> how successful is he likely to be to get the remaining coalitions behind him? perry, sounds like he's getting out. bachmann says she's not. do you believe that? >> they will be defeated.

and defeated candidates' endorsements, historically make very others difference. if i were perry, i would be on the phone in the morning, sarah palin, jim demint to mike huckabee and say, i'm the conservative -- if i were rick santorum, with all due trop mitt romney, we don't know where he is, i think that huckabee and palin and demoint count for more at this point than bachmann and perry. if i were mitt romney, i would be thinking about who to get to endorse me. i am not sure there are that many outstanding. i would get on the phone with jeb bush and say, florida's going to be really penitentiary. i do think, once you lose and get defeated and you are on the verge of pulling out, you are irrelevant pretty fast. it's perry -- but they can quickly become pretty uninteresting and then it's

worth thinking, who are the other people. that's why sarah palin, you get to get her back on and push her harder. >> governor palin, i want to answer my question here! >> i want the truth? >> exactly. >> you know... as i watch the candidates go forward and you wonder, it look its like there is a clear dichotomy between mitt romney and rick santorum. does this split the republican party between the old school, sort of -- yon i don't want to call them rhinos, but the less staunchly conservative republican and it is truly conservative in the party? >> this is precisely the way that rick santorum wants this to unfold. it's one of the reasons that i am more skeptical than some of the other people about santorum emphasizing his sort of -- the populist economic plan and going full bore on that. sounding like mike huckabee did in 2008.

have you to remember that rick santorum was one of the first people who fully and in an unqualified way, embraced paul ryan's plan, when other candidates were not doing that, that puts him pretty far on the right in entitlement reform and economic reform. i am not sure he will run that way because i think that he wants to frame the debate as a choice between the rhinos or the establishment on the one hand and the conservatives on the other hand. this is where,h if he could get endorsements from jim demint from tea party favorites, that could help him frame the debate. >> we are now getting the two-minute warning from the republicans at the convention center. we do expect an official announcement now, within the next two minutes, officially as to the winner. we expect. stay tuned for that. >> iowa chairman matt strom to make the announcement, there at the podium.

>> i'm an adviser to iowa republican chairman matt strom. we are having a two-minute warning on an announcement, want to thank everybody for being patient and staying up so late. thank you. 2 minutes. >> okay. there's the two minutes. >> start the click. >> historically, when you have the split -- historically, but you get the two-minute warnings, what happens in the next two minutes? do people think it's two minutes, three minutes? one and-a-half minutes? >> historically, who emerges the winner? the far right conservative, if that's how you want to characterize it? or the more moderate. >> this is reagan/bush. i'm reagan. and mitt romney's advisers will say, wait a second, this is dole buchanan, '96 or bush/mccain 2000 or mccain huckabee in 2008 and the more establishment

centrist candidate, center-right beats the more conservative or more anti-establishment candidate in all of those races. they're historical analogies but this year is so different. i have used a lot of analogies myself. but i am not doubtful that any of these analogies tell us much. >> there are other factors in this one, one is that that rick santorum came out of nowhere and romney has run, he was seen as the frontrunner. he is considered to be the most electable in every poll, if you ask republican voters, even who don't like him, they say he's electable. but if they were to say, we like santorum because we like his positions, they have to say, he can beat barack obama. >> here's the important thing. one poll to watch for, friday, saturday, sunday, they will now and ask and match up santorum

with barack obama. and if santorum shows almost as well as romney, if it looks like 45-46 race, thane the electability argument, a lot of republican who is are torn say, wait a second, i could be for santorum f. thereby their could be a big gap, then romney could continue to play the electability card. >> okay. unfortunately, the two minutes has come and gone. >> we are waiting to find out exactly what's going o. we have reported from two sources that it has been determined that mitt romney will win in this race by 14 votes. 14 votes over rick santorum. we assume that that is the word we are going to get about the precincts that have been counted just minutes ago.

steve, this has been a long process. it is continuing. it is longer. [chuckles] >> look back at the night. put it in perspective, while we wait for 15 seconds. >> i will make a point, can't believe bill kristol didn't make. in this kind of chaos, out of the early states, creating an opening for yet another late entry into the race, member to come out of the blue, a mitch daniels, a sarah palin, a mike huckabee, people who have given a look at the race and decided they weren't interested, to take another look, if there is chaos, if it looks like we are going to be heading to a republican convention, where there could be a battle or at least a long process. could someone like that emerge, fill a niche that is not filled and actually have a place in this debate? >> this is the brokered connection argument? >> this is the bill kristol

dream scenario. >> let's listen in. >> good evening, everyone. what a night. thanks for think hanging in there. i am matt strong, chairman of the republican party. i am excited that ira republican his a record turnout for the 2012 republican iowa caucuses with twenty 122,255 iowans, turt to vote as republicans to start the process to replace barack obama. i want to thank all of my staff. i want to thank the volunteers because the precinct leaders, the 1774 leaders were all volunteer, giving of their time. a couple of those, we had to chase down here in the wee hours to get the final precincts in. we were able to verify the vote reports. the great thing about the caucus process, every step of the way, campaign officials have the opportunity to not only observe the counting, but observe the reporting and verify from this precinct itself, all the way up

into the tabulation center, where each campaign had a senior staff person who was able to observe and verify the results. everyone should know, within party rules, each county has two weeks to send the certified form "e" with the results from each precinct in their count tow republican headquarters. so within two weeks, the republican party of iowa will have the final certified results of the iowa caucuses. but i can report with 1770 presincts reporting, governor mitt romney received 30,015 votes. and senator rick santorum received 30,007 votes. congratulations to governor mitt romney, winner of the 2012 caucuses. congratulations to senator rick santorum for a very close second-place finish and an excellent scprais congratulations to congressman paul and the other candidate who is competed in the 2012 iowa

caucuses. thank you very much. have a good night. >> matt stran. >> 122,255. >> had to get that final turnout number back in. but mitt romney wins the iowa caucuses by 8 votes. mitt romney wins the iowa caucuses by 8 votes over former senator rick santorum. took until 2:34 eastern time for that to happen. the interesting thing was that it's going to take 2 weeks for all of these precincts to officially certify this result. but 8 votes separates 1 and 2. >> and the interesting thing at the end was the turnout, 122 thousand. someone suggested that they may suggest an enthusiasm gap on the part of the republicans because it mirror who what we saw four s ago. but is that the case? would you expect more in the g.o.p. primary, as opposed to on game day in november?

>> the party was projecting 140,000, so this is lower than projected. you know, look at the democratic primary in 2008, twice as many people showed up. it was over 200,000 people. so that's enthusiasm. i don't see this as enthusiasm, when i attended the events -- i am sure you saw the same thing. there weren't a lot of people. you didn't feel a lot of enthusiasm. i don't see it as being particularly great. >> do you agree. e >> in 200,000 democrats voted in 2008, 120,000 voted in the republican primary. this time, it was the same on both sides. so iowa's a swing state. you would have expected more even and certainly, there was no surge, compared to 2008. so for those who think this is a field that hasn't -- does not have all the a-team on the field i. is he going back to the dream scenario. >> here he goes.

honestly, if chris christie and mitch daniels and paul ryan and others, mike huckabee and sarah palin were running, would there be a much higher turnout? i think the answer is yes. >> there are a lot of exciting republican who is are not running. >> i am not going to step on this at 2:36 in the morning. you know? >> don't you think it's time to love the one you are with? or most of the g.o.p.? >> that's a complicated question. i don't want to get into personal relationship counseling issues, you know? >> steve, we waited a long time for that cheque mark on the box there, the winner. but the story, the headlines, what are they going to be, across the major paper snitches yeah. i think the story of the night clearly is rick santorum. you don't have the dramatic rise we have seen over the past two weeks. and not have that be the dominant story. mitt romney did well. he won, technically won the beauty contest. but it's a win.

i mean, i still think it does count. even the story, the leap tomorrow, mitt romney, narrowly beat rick santorum in what was effectively a tie or some such language. but the story is rick santorum. you think to where he was 2 weeks ago and where he was six months ago. i remember being in the fox green room with him, talking to him as he laid out to me his strategy for being a serious candidate. i will admit, i didn't take him very seriously. it was an awkward exchange where i was looking at him, thinking, you are crazy. that doesn't make any sense at all. and he looked at me in that reading my reaction and said, i am not crazy. that's not crazy. it turns out, he was right. that's not crazy. >> 2 1/2 weeks ago in the green room in washington. he was saying how he was upset that more news operations, including ours, didn't give him enough credit for what he was doing in iowa and despite the fact he was so low in the polls

that he wasn't getting the time and the focus on what he was seeing anecdoteally on the ground. i said with time and performance, i am sure it's going to change. soon after that, the des moines register poll comes out, before this week, he outperforms that poll by, what? 3, 4%? >> yeah. >> the final one. he was at 16 in the cumulative look at that poll and he ends up at 25. so he really outperforms it by 9 points, but the final two days showed him at 22. but it's clearly a surge. but, look, remember, bret, he laid this out in the interview that we did with him on center seat. this is exactly what he said. he said, look, i'm trying to create the scenario, where if i catch fire in the final days and weeks in iowa, if all the time i have spent there pays off, i have set up a scenario where i

can really build on that momentum. if you look at south carolina, he's been there 26 times with county chairs in 42 of 46 counties. he's laid the groundwork there and a south carolina official said that santorum and perry and gingrich have the best ground operation there. so he has done exactly what he said he was going to do in the middle of october, when he was talking to us on center seat. >> it seems the real winner tonight may be iowa, which managed to give us a very interesting contest and proven to future candidates that the way to win this state or come very closen is boots on the ground, try to persuade iowans and not just the debates and the advertising. have you to be here. that's the argument they will make. that's what they want folks to walk away with. we are checking in with john roberts to find out if he can find out the name of the guy who has the ballot. in that one county.

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and for them. call or visit chanceatcontrol.com. >> congratulations to mitt romney, winner of the iowa caucuses, congratulations to rick santorum and an excellent race here and congratulations to congressman paul and the other candidate who is compete in the iowa 2012 caucuses. thank you very much. and have a good night. >> took us a long time to get here. but matt strawn, making the announcement that former governor mitt romney won the iowa caucuses by 8 votes, that's .000065% over former senator rick santorum. let's go to john roberts for final thoughts from the convention center, where crickets are not chirping.

there are people in the background. john? >> i feel like mathew broderick when he comes out and says, it's over. what are you still doing here? go home! really, go home. it's over. you know? i haven't seen anything this slim in all of my time covering these caucuses. 8 votes separating the two of them. i am a little confused that matt strawn said with 270 precincts there was one in clinton county that didn't come in. did he misspeak? 30,015 for mitt romney and 30,007 for rick santorum. it doesn't get much closer than that. and you could say there are bragging rights out of the iowa, saying i won. but there is real significance, mitt romney has such a lead in new hampshire, if he goes on to win the new hampshire primary on tuesday, he would be the first

non-incumbent republican candidate to win both iowa and new hampshire. i was talking to one of his campaign aides yesterday, talking built prospects of coming out of iowa with a good head of steam. that's been tempered somewhat with by how close this race was. it is a virtual tie. but they were thinking if he came out with a significant win and then go to new hampshire and win there, they could poterkly cut down the length of the contest. but this is a whole different race in new hampshire. it will be a lot of fun to cover. >> thank you so much. great job tonight. get some sleep. see you in new hampshire. >> the moment we have been waiting for. after this commercial break, final thoughts from our panel. >> the crowd goes wild.

>> welcome back to des moines. we are getting if i'm thoughts as we wrap up the evening. if you fell asleep and just woke up, we do now have a winner of the iowa caucuses and that is governor mitt romney, by 8 votes. edging out senator rick santorum, who was considered an impossible choice a couple of

weeks ago, in terms of poll numbers but managed to really, really have a great night. i want to toss it to chris wallace in new york for final thoughts from mr. rove and mr. trip py, are they still there? >> they are awake. i have to say, not to diminish in any way what rick santorum accomplished, a huge victory for him. but joe trippi was telling the story from 19dweat, you tell it? >> dick gephardt, a guy i worked for, lived in the state two years, had his family there, did all 99 counties. we won the state. we got on the jet that night. i watched him as he pulled out a map of the united states and studied it for a few minutes and then pulled it down and said, how am i going to do this? it tells you how tough now the job is, if you are rick santorum to come out of this and take at this time rest of the way? >> karl? >> it's tough for all of them. they have been campaigning for a year and they have been exhausted and they are about

ready to enter a brutal phase. george w. bush said the period from iowa through the time that he won the nomination was the toughest time of the entire 2000 campaign. some of them are airplanes as we speak, on the way to new hampshire. and they will be in a constant motion, lots of pressure, lots of decisions have to be made. you know, physically and mentally, it's as demanding as you can be in politics, even more than a general election because you are dealing with your own people and you are dealing with people whom you have come to in anymanyinances admire or are in close quarters with competitors. >> do we know if michigan won the sugar bowl? >> they did. >> they did. >> it over time. >> overtime! >> go, blue! >> you can see the excitement here at the table. >> whew. >> i'm excited.

>> karl, joe, chris, thank you all so much. >> back with our panel for final thoughts. steve, bill and crifertin. kirstin. >> it's been a great, interesting night. lots of special memories with you guys. [chuckles] >> total lack of credibility. >> you can name us? >> i forgot your name one time, one time only. no. but it's pretty interesting, a lot of people were talking about would mitt romney wrap this up and win here and then go on to new hampshire? he just -- he did technically win by 8 votes. he didn't win, i think definitively enough. perhaps this is what the race will be like. and we are going to be having seven-hour nights. here maybe he will go into new hampshire. he is very far ahead and really bring it home and wrap it up. >> good question.

could we be doing the same thing, into our seventh hour this time i. yeah, if they stay so divided, the way they are right now. >> the one thing that has happened, we have been surprised. we have been surprised, amazingly often and quickly. i think the biggest mistake is to say, okay, now we know. this is a two-man race. i think something weird will happen and it won't be the way it looks right here toafnlt. >> i'll echo what bill said. i heard people saying, this race was over if mitt romney was close to winning, much less if he won. the romney campaign is telling people, nobody has won iowa and new hampshire and not gone on to win the nomination. this is the conventional wisdom thinking that i think has tripped people up. you look back at the primary process, you look back at the debates, this has been total chaos, total chaos. but fun.

i think we are here, again at the end of a night like this, which has been chaotic -- but i think fun. i think it portends the same kind of path for the next several months. >> quickly, down the line nthree weeks, after south carolina, will we know who the nominee is? >> i think that will be unlikely. >> i think unlikely and it really gets a chance, a 20% chance that someone else will get in the race. >> there he goes again. >> keep hope alive. >> it is time for the dream state. >> are you going to declare? [overlapping dialogue] >> profit without honor on my own network. >> i would be tempted to say, absolutely not. weil not. but since you don't want to maker absolute statements at this point, i will just say no. >> i will say we are absolutely done for the evening. thank you to all of our panel. bret, it's been a pleasure. >> it's been an honor and a pleasure, as always. a lot of fun. i am struck by rick santorum a

finish t. reminds me of john mccain, with the image going on the plane by himself. rick santorum went to 99 counties, sometimes he was talking to two or three people. he pulled an amazing story out of this iowa caucus. >> he needed to talk to 8 more. >> that's it. >> just 8 more. >> every vote counts! that does it for us from des moines. >> thanks for watching. >> join us one week from tonight, as we come to you live from from new hampshire. the first primary of the 2012 presidential race, my flight back to washington is in 6 hours.