cafe. and official, a few hours ago, mitt romney, 30,015 votes. santorum om eight votes behind, and both candidates coming out to speak before the final votes came in last night. romney moved on. his eyes on the big prize. take a listen. >> you are working, i am working and we're all working together because of our passion for this country and a concern led by a president who may be a nice guy but just is over his head, and i look at his campaign -- you know, four years ago tonight he was giving a victory celebration speech here in des moines, and he'd been going across the state making all sorts of promises. the gap between his promises four years ago and his performance is as great as anything i've ever seen in my life. >> mitt romney, he was talking there about president barack obama, but, really, it's rick santorum who he's talking to, we'll speak to, a big endorsement from john mccain and he beat mitt romney back in 2008. and coming up just short -- built on that traditional iowa caucus campaign. 400 rallies, 99 counties. santorum with one message to iowa voters before it's off to new hampshire and he said this -- >> thank you so much, iowa. you -- you, by standing up and not compromising. by standing up and being bold and leading. leading with that burden and responsibility you have to be first, you have taken the first step of taking back this country. >> and it looks like first in, first out. amp a disappointing showing in last night's caucuses, texas governor rick perry says he'll go home and do some thinking. take a listen. >> with the voters decision tonight in iowa, i've decided to return it texas, assess the results of tonight's caucus, determine whether there is a path forward for myself in this race. >> closer look now at who voted for mitt romney? who voted for rick santorum? who voted for ron paul? specifically and why. christine romans is breaking down those numbers for us this morning. she's at the cnn election center. hey, christine, good morning. >> good morning, soledad. from where you are in iowa to where we are here in iowa, this is what it looked like last night, all of this purple is rick santorum. he took the middle part of the state. i want to go back to 2008 in iowa so you can see some of the similarities here. look at this kn. no part of the state went to huckabee, won with 35% of vote in 2008. in 2008, one county, just one county for ron paul. by 2012, ron paul picked up all of this extra territory here and this red, of course, is mitt romney. and mitt romney, you know, basically had the same, even maybe a few votes less this time around in the iowa caucuses than in 2008. the people voting for him, the same number of people voting for him in 2008 voting for him in 2012. so if all of this is ron paul resurgence here and a surge for rick santorum, why did mitt romney win iowa, then? you can figure out that by looking at population. this magic wall here sizes for population. you see across the river from omaha. des moines, part of central iowa, cedar rapids, davenport, over by dubuque. places with higher populations and those higher populated places with higher incomes, quite frankly, those are the places where people voted for mitt romney. for mitt romney, and that's why he managed to take the state by a very, very slim margin. the middle of the state, that was definitely, definitely territory that was santorum territory. territory held by mike huckabee four years ago. soledad? >> all right, chris tooep, thanks. right to our political panel for analysis of that. senior political analyst, editorial and a national democratic editor for go vote dotcom and a republican consultant and cnn political contributor. cutting down on all of that since our last talk his morning. okay. winner, yet really it's more likesqueaker-byer of what happened. >> it was less than probably the margin of error in counting it. what happened last night, mitt romney essentially stood in place from 2008. he largely held his vote from 2008. didn't really expand it, but that was enough to get slightly ahead in a very fractured field. this result in iowa reshuffled the cast, basically reaffirmed the republican race. >> which is rick santorum? >> well, it's that mitt romney has his piece of the party. did well with voters who are not evangelicals, 38%, voters that are not members of the tea party. only 14% among evangelical and those voters once again as we've seen in polls all year did not entirely unify. santorum got the lion's share, not as much as mike huck abye d -- huckabee did four years ago. >> people prohibited a huge turnout and talk about frustration and also that could lead people to go to the polls, and we didn't see a giant jump up from 2008. >> no, we didn't. and when you see that large and undecided turnout right before an election, it tells you something. it tells you that they haven't found someone to love, and that's what happened in this election. it's like saying, hey, i want to go to the movies. i just don't know which movie i want to the see. it doesn't work that way. >> if this is the environment and the contest started, who is the win jer is it barack obama? >> i think it is president obama. look at what happened last night. i was on the phone with a friend of mine's dad who lives in iowa. republican voter. i don't like enough of these guys to show up at a caucus. we saw that. not a big turnout over 2008. less voters came out then than for president obama. after six, seven years of campaigning, millions of dollar, mitt romney got the same number of voters at last time. a littlefragility there. you see the working plass cou c, towns around the border, talking about manufacturing jobs. mitt romney is a finance guy. rick santorum is talking about manufacturing jobs. >> we have graphic that shows the differentiation between who voted. look at people who made $50,000 or more, mitt romney had the voters. $50,000 and less it was rick santorum. >> and ron paul in this case. look, the composition of the republican primary, the republican electorate is changing. it's different than it used to be. look at education. in 2008, 51% of the total vote in the republican primary were non-college voters, working class voters. 49% college educated. we've seen democratic primaries repeatedly divided along this line with an upscale candidate and down scale candidate. we call it the wine track and the beer track. >> that's before occupy wall street and the tea party? >> let me finish. usually republican races have not fallen along those lines but there's a real possibility you will see that class divide in the republican party, because mitt romney is a very strong candidate for the upper middle class republicans. they relate to him as a manager and business guy. he's struggled more with the blue collar components. and rick santorum is doing cultural conservative and economic nationalism aimed directly at those voters. >> and fourth place, newt gingrich, already out of town. a little clip of what he said. he's mad. >> whether this party wants a reagan conservative, who helped change washington in the 1980s with ronald reagan and helped change washington in the 1990s as speaker of the house, somebody who is into changing washington, or we want a massachusetts moderate who, in fact, will be pretty good at managing the decay, but has given no evidence in his years of massachusetts of any ability to change the culture or change the political structure or change the government. >> newt gingrich in this race. >> gingrich is gingrich. it's about to happen. >> no more mr. nice guy. the story about newt gingrich. but this is the best snare dwlee could happen for mitt romney in the worse way. he got what he wanted. >> not sure i'm following you. what does that mean? >> he got wa he wanted. didn't get rick perry, he got rick santorum, someone he this, we can beat this guy. he has flaws. >> super pac. n. all of this, now rick perry who was going to take on santorum, going negative against santorum is gone from the process. so all of a sudden santorum gets to run loose. but he's got a bulldog on this tail now with newt gingrich, who's going to go after mitt romney -- >> rick santorum doesn't have to go negative. >> right. >> magic blue collar crowd and newt gingrich can be his wing man in attacking mitt romney? >> clearly what's going to happen. >> he's a man on a leash, nothing left to lose. his path to the nomination is doubtful. the same guy who said a month ago, it's inevitable that i'm going to win this thing. now it's almost impossible -- >> he's mad. >> and gingrich will divide the voters resistance to romney. in one hand help santorum tactically. the county votes, probably does what romney wants, further split that portion of the party most skeptical of him. >> a short break. stick around. i love this parse. parsing the stacks and stacks of stifks we have to look at. ahead on "starting point," behind the scenes of the high wa caucuses. we're talk about how difficult it was to finally settle on one candidate. and mitt romney fresh off his razor tight win, joins us live. that's all ahead on "starting point." be right back. r sore muscles usw bengay cold therapy, it's pro-cool technology releases armies of snowmen masseuse who cuddle up with your soreness and give out polar bear hugs. technology. 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[ charlie ] try zinc free super poligrip. and now with iowa out of the way, the race turns its attention to new hampshire and south carolina. with six days until new hampshire there isn't time for a breather. reporters standing by in the next two critical battlegrounds. dan lothian live in manchester, new hampshire and dave mattingly live in aiken, south carolina. good morning, guise. what what's going to be happening as we look ahead? >> reporter: well, looking ahead here in new hampshire, this is the next big test for the republican presidential hopefuls. in a state where mitt romney has had a large double-digit lead over his opponents here for quite some time, the reason is, because he's well-known in this state. not only does he own a second home here, he was the former governor of this state right on the border here of massachusetts, but also he ran in 2008, came in second place here. so people didn't have to get to know mitt romney. they knew him well, and so he has continued consistently, having a strong showing in the polls. the big question now is, will senator santorum be able to get a bounce off of his impressive showing in iowa here in new hampshire? i was at his headquarters there last night, and his supporters who were very energized do believe that this will certainly help their candidate as he comes here and gets a chance to essentially re-introduce himself to new hampshire voters, and if you look at the early polling, and i should point out that this is just those who have been watching, or were watching the iowa caucuses, all of the numbers for all of the candidates stayed the same, but when you look at santorum's numbers compared to early december, to those who were watching last night, he's gone from 5% to 10%. so already it does show that at least there's some movement there. a little bounce coming out of his impressive showing in iowa. of course, his supporters hoping that that will continue, soledad. >> dan lothian, thanks. we're going to head to new hampshire as well after we wrap the show this morning. and aiken, south carolina. 17 days to go before the primary there and david mattingly. rick perry was supposed to visit with you there and now he says he's heading back to texas to think things out, which is usually what they say right before they drop out of the race. right? >> reporter: that's right. and the big headline here, of course, is nots what's happening in south carolina today, it's what's not happening. rick perry was supposed to be here in aiken today. he was going to be coming to south carolina as his land of second chances. he was hoping to risk start his campaign and get his candidacy back on track here, almost completely ignoring campaigning in new hampshire, the process. instead he's back in texas this morning re-assessing his campaign. at this point, even the chairman of the gop here in south carolina was quoted yesterday saying that this state is still wide open. everyone watching iowa, seeing how close it was there. everyone knowing that romney is going to do well in new hampshire. no one ready to say exactly who has the upper hand in this state. rick santorum showing in iowa could help him very much here with the social conservatives. he's going to be positioning himself as the candidate who is speaking to the true conservatives in the republican party. mitt romney is going to position himself as the one who has the best chance to beat president obama in the general election, and, of course, this state went through a lot of trouble to move their primary up ahead of florida after that state moved their primary up so that south carolina could continue to have the first vote in the south to set the tone for the rest of this campaign, and south carolina voters this morning, soledad, are waking up to find out they are exactly in the position they wanted to be in after new hampshire to possibly be the ones to point a finger at the true front-runner in this campaign. >> everybody will be watching there. all right, david mattingly for us this morning. thanks. still to come on "starting point" this morning, the margin, just eight votes. it's a win, though, just the same for mitt romney. the former massachusetts governor will join us live straight ahead. stay with us.mo . if you replace 3 tablespoons of sugar a day with splenda®, you'll save 100 calories a day. that could help you lose up to 10 pounds in a year. and now get even more with splenda® essentials, the only line of sweeteners with a small boost of fiber, or antioxidants, or b vitamins in every packet. just another reason why you get more... when you sweeten with splenda®. ♪ oh, there's a prize, all right. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those great-tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. is it a superhero? kinda. ♪ my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ welcome back, everybody. over 120,000 iowans caucused last night. once every ballot was counted, just eight votes separated mitt romney and rick santorum. in the days before, more than 40% said they could be persuaded to change their minds. last night i got complete access to the caucuses in clive, iowa, southern section of des moines. literally minutes before the vote, still trying to figure it out. with me, four iowans. they cast their votes last night. dr. kristy taylor, running the caucuses. jest westindorf, melanie taylor, dr. taylor's daughter and on the end, nice to see all of you. thanks for getting up early. a late night for all of us. dr. taylor. >> good morning. >> good morning. fill me in. the sense i got last night from people, undecide, energized to be there but frustrated at the same time subpoe. is that a fair description? >> pretty fair. >> why? >> excited about the change, the vote, having a new leader in the country. very excited about that. at the same time, frustrated maybe everything they wanted wasn't present in one single candidate. >> you are an internist. what issue is not being discussed enough in detail in your mind? >> in my mind, the details on health care in the new plan. everyone says we're going to repeal obama care. i don't think that's specific enough. we can't simply say we're going to repeal obama care and not have a plan. what do you want to do about our national health care? we need to be specific how we want to provide care for people in this country and yet not go broke. >> when we talked to you last night, jeff, you were undecided until seconds before you made the vote. why were you undecided? what was the issue that was a struggle? >> you have to lay the economic policies with the social policies and economically, that's where i want the focus to be. i think we need to shrink the size of government drastically. i think we have to address major reforms. i think we have to address social security issues. i think we have a younger generation that will end up paying the costs for past generations, and i voted for ron paul, i believe less government is better and i think he's the only candidate i see with a radical approach to the economic issues, and i don't mean radical, i mean it as, he has a broad approach that really will slash government. that's what i think we need in this country. >> melanie, ron paul's been speaking to a lot of young people. you are 20 years old. is he your candidate as well? >> no. i voted for romney. >> and why? >> hop nenestly, it came down t executive experience and electability. i think romney has the opportunity to really bring in those moderate voters. you know, santorum was a close second for myself, but his electability and his executive experience i think falls a little short of romney's. >> do you guys get the sense there's a change in the gop? jeff, you spoke about this. do you feel a shift, or a tone, is a better way to put it? >> i think there is a divide in the gop. i think it's healthy. the debate is healthy in the country and we should have a robust debate. >> that debate is between what and what? >> i believe the debate is between the social conservatives in our party and the economic conservatives in our party. and i think that debate has been ongoing for many decades. >> brent, i want to ask you a question, who you were supporting last night? >> i ended up supporting perry. >> and gave a great speech. i was there. a good speech to the crowd. got enthusiastic applause, did badly, though, in the polls. what happens now? your candidate, i'm going home to rethink thinks, code for probably will be dropping out of the race later on today. what do you do now? >> see how things go. see who ends up getting nominated and if i will choose to support them or not, because i don't know. depends. >> what is your biggest concern about the candidates as they move forward and as this whole entire thing moves off iowa and moves to new hampshire? >> i'll like to hear more than sound bites. i'd like to hear specifics when they talk about their 3457bs for health care, for taxes, for jobs. i'd like to hear spukly how they plan to solve these serious problems in our country. >> i would like to hear more about foreign policy. this is a ding