Waiting for the results from Iowa. Updates.

Here is a graphic which shows how much each candidate spent on advertising.

Click here if graphic does not enlarge for you.

Right now MSNBC is predicting that this is a contest between Paul Santorum, and Romney.

And it looks like it is devolved into a political knife fight at the very end.

From the Washington Post:

After months of talking and thousands of words, the Republican campaign in Iowa reached its terminal phase on Tuesday. There was only time for insults. 

“Ron Paul is disgusting,” former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum told a handful of Fox News reporters Tuesday morning. He was blaming Rep. Paul (R-Tex.) for automated phone calls in Iowa, which told voters that the vehemently anti-abortion Santorum was, instead, more supportive of abortion rights. Paul’s campaign did not immediately respond. 

“Very liberal.” Paul said that Monday about Santorum, his main opponent in the long contest to be the conservative alternative to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Paul’s argument was that, while in the Senate, Santorum did too little to cut government spending. 

A liar. That’s what former House speaker Newt Gingrich — still trying to be an alternative to all of the above — said about Romney on CBS’s “Early Show” Tuesday morning. He was sticking by a charge he’d made about Romney on Sunday, when he said, “somebody who will lie to you to get to be president, will lie to you when they are president.”

So much for Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment. Is it wrong that I get so much enjoyment from watching the GOP eat their young?

I will keep this post up to date as results roll in.

If you hear anything send me a shout out in the comments.

Update: With 88% in it is still too close to call between Romney and Santorum. But it looks like  Ron Paul is NOT going to take Iowa this year.

Color me unsurprised.

Update 2: Santorum and Romney are separated by only  37 votes.

Essentially Santorum is ahead by just hair. I won't identify from where.

Update 3: Romney now ahead by 41 votes.

Seismologists report no Palin earthquake detected by their instruments. They thought they detected a spike on the Richter scale, but it was chalked up to canned goods hitting a refrigerator someplace in Alaska.

Update 4: It appears that Perry may not be quite as slow as everybody thought he was.

From The New York Times:

Mr. Perry had said he would take the campaign directly to South Carolina, skipping New Hampshire to fight on in the conservative southern state. 

But Mr. Perry said on Tuesday night that he had changed his mind. He did not officially drop out of the race, but said he would return to his home in Texas to decide what to do.

It looks like "Brokeback" Rick might no longer have that "fire in the belly." 

At this point I cannot imagine what is keeping Jon Huntsman and Michele Bachmann in this race.

Update 5: It does not seem that anybody is ready to call this contest yet, but it looks like Santorum MIGHT just have eked out a victory with barely a handful of votes separating him from Romney.

Way to go Iowa. Apparently you are damned and determined to make your caucus irrelevant.

Assuming of course it was ever relevant in the first place.

Update 6: In the immortal words of Rick Perry, "oops."

Here I go to bed confidant that that Iowa blew it by allowing Santorum to win the caucus, only to wake up and realize that Romney slaughtered him by eight entire votes.

Slaughtered I say!