Romney gets Santorum-ed

“It’s been a great victory for us here,” Mitt Romney said after the initial results of the Iowa caucuses.

“A win by any number of votes is a good win,” added New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who dubbed the former Massachusetts governor “Landslide Romney.”

Here’s the problem: Romney’s eight-vote win in the January 4 Iowa caucuses was actually a 34-vote loss to Rick Santorum, according to the final certified tally released yesterday by the Iowa GOP.

Obviously, that’s bad for America’s most famous Mormon.

I guess it means Santorum won Iowa by an avalanche.

But that’s not all. This week Romney, the until-now presumptive Republican presidential candidate, suffered a series of blows so severe that they could be lethal, underscoring his vulnerabilities and highlighting the fact that the nomination is still up for grabs.

The quarter-billionaire revealed this week that he only pays a 15% tax rate, while most high-earning Americans pay closer to 35%. Ouch. (Hours after the announcement, I got an email from the Obama campaign collecting signatures for Romney to immediately release his tax returns. “Despite having an estimated fortune of up to $250 million, Mitt says he probably pays an effective tax rate of only 15%. That’s less than what school teachers pay,” the campaign said.)

Surging rival Newt Gingrich got two big endorsements this week from Rick Perry, who dropped out of the GOP race yesterday, and also from Sarah Palin, who said that “in order to keep this thing going, I’d vote for Newt.”

(While Mitt Romney got one endorsement this week from Jon Huntsman after he also dropped out of the GOP race, the support of the former China ambassador (who only took about 1% of the vote in Iowa) is unlikely to do Mitt much good.)

Wait, the Energizer Bunny keeps bringing more bad news for Mitt.

He blew Thursday night’s debate in South Carolina, just 36 hours before Carolinians head to the primary polls. If you watched, you know what I mean. Romney looked, as always, like he was hiding something, and hesitant about releasing his tax returns. Meanwhile, Ron Paul looked, as always, like he was showing too much, saying he made too little to make his tax returns interesting. Santorum came across as the most sincere and conservative, while Gingrich came across as the smartest and most combative of the four remaining candidates.

Indeed, Gingrich turned what could have been a damning accusation from one of his ex-wives—that he asked her to engage in an “open marriage”—into an opportunity to attack the media and elicit sympathy.

“I am appalled you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that,” Gingrich told moderator John King. “Every person in here knows personal pain. Every person in here has had someone close to them go through painful things. To take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question for a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine.”

Nevermind that the accusation is probably true. Gingrich “won” the question.

You could have stopped watching there. “He could win South Carolina based on that answer,” political commentator David Gergen said afterward. Mark Halperin said Friday morning that it now looks like “Gingrich is probably going to win this primary.” Nate Silver this morning gave Gingrich a 62% chance of winning.

To me, so much was said just by the way each candidate walked onto the debate stage. The elderly Paul stooped, seemingly resigned to being overlooked. The pious Santorum strode onto the stage like a good Christian soldier. The portly Gingrich waddled onto the stage like a self-assured loudmouth. And the flip-flopping Romney stuttered onto the stage, his perfect hair unmoved but his halting walk revealing trouble underfoot.

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