Within the Margin

In less than 24 hours, we should know the outcome of the Iowa Republican caucuses. It’s less likely that we truly know what that outcome means, though: polling basically shows a three-way tie between Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum and I think that we’ll have a result pretty close to that, which will mean that the most a non-Romney winner could claim is some momentum – nothing approaching a decisive win. And the most Romney could claim is that he barely won against deeply-divided opposition, and that he still has a great deal to prove going forward.

Over the past few days I have been able to convince myself that any of the three will come out on top.

Rick Santorum, because of his late momentum – to use a cliche, he’s peaking at the right time, when it’s too late to really come under attack from his opponents or be savaged by the press. The possibility exists that enough Bachmann and Perry supporters opt to go with a (potential) winner and move their votes to the man who most easily passes for their next-of-kin. Familiarity with Santorum, borne out of the man’s near-residence in the state this year, has resulted in the highest Iowa favorability of any of the Republicans in the race and could get him over the hump.

Ron Paul, because we have always been told that organization counts a great deal in Iowa, because we have seen how organization counts, and organization he has in spades. He’s doing a late fade after his brief surge, but Paul’s floor has always been stable.

Mitt Romney, because he never fades, because his opposition is not up to the task of mounting a sustained offensive on the openings he provides, and because – most importantly – Mitt said Monday that he was going to win. I’m not being tongue-in-cheek; I think that really is important. More on that below.

I will not, under any circumstances, give Gingrich a shot at winning this thing. The ridiculousness of watching a man concede defeat, only to hours later start talking about compound sentences and how he may indeed pull of a historic upset, rivals only that of watching Rex Ryan incorrectly assess his team’s playoff chances at a post-game press conference. For Gingrich, we’ve already moved into the post-game. Yet, does his book tour require him to press on for now? His egomaniacal desire to be able to declare that he influenced the course of debate may also necessitate appearing in another couple of debates. And he would certainly lose face among conservative opinionmakers by bailing before New Hampshire after receiving that state’s most promiment newspaper endorsement.

Likewise, Bachmann and Perry are done. Bachmann isn’t getting out of the high single-digits in current polling, she’ll probably end up bleeding even more supporters to Santorum at the very end, and she has no money to continue after this. Her campaign will end tomorrow in the state where she was born. As some of my family members pointed out to me on Christmas Eve, when the discussion around the wood stove turned to politics, she didn’t flame out as spectacularly as Perry or Cain or even Gingrich. She couldn’t raise money, and she couldn’t hold on to staffers, but her relatively quiet rise and fall are a distinct phenomenon from other other one-time pack leaders.

Perry, on the other hand, may continue past Iowa because he has the money to do so and because South Carolina looms as a potentially friendly environment for the Southerner to mount a final stand. But more likely, the Santorum surge finishes Perry and dooms him to single-digit performances in Iowa and any other states he contests.

That leaves Jon Huntsman, who has maintained a laser-like focus on New Hampshire but is stagnating there even as his opponents are encamped in Iowa, and Buddy Roemer, the oft-forgotten former Louisiana governor whose populist, shoestring campaign has not caught on anywhere. Both do register a bit of support in most Iowa polling, so I include them in my final call.

So my prediction – or perhaps best guess – about Tuesday’s final numbers:

Mitt Romney – 25%
Rick Santorum – 23%
Ron Paul – 21%
Newt Gingrich – 12%
Rick Perry – 9%
Michele Bachmann – 6%
Jon Huntsman – 3%
Buddy Roemer – 1%

There’s nothing earth-shattering there, though clearly I’m buying into the idea of Santorum finishing even stronger than his current polling shows, by claiming a good chunk of the undecideds and nipping a point or two from Gingrich/Perry/Bachmann. And I think Romney wins with a lower percentage in the Iowa caucus than we’ve seen in the modern era – even lower than Bob Dole’s 1996 showing.

Why do I see Romney hitting 25% and taking the win, despite failing to reach that mark in any of the four weekend polls? I’m putting a lot of credence in his Monday statement that “we’re going to win this thing.” Yeah, I know a campaign aide later said he was referring to the nomination, but the context of the statement was clearly about Iowa, because he immediately followed by referring to “other states.” Mitt’s campaign has been marked by limiting Iowa expectations while raising expectations everywhere else. They’ve been remarkably disciplined in this approach. Mitt rarely goes off-script, in part because emotion is what makes you go off-script, and emotion is not what Mitt does. That the words came out of his mouth, even in the heat of the moment, even on the eve of a major election, when candidates are tired and raw, tells me that Mitt believes their organization will get the job done on Tuesday.

The ordained Republican frontrunner usually – well, always – wins the nomination. But he rarely wins Iowa. I think this is the year that changes, and that Romney wins despite never really planning to do so.

But don’t count out the two guys still standing – Paul and Santorum – who actually engender some enthusiasm among Republicans. And tell us what you think in the comments.