UPDATE 1:46 AM CENTRAL: Mitt Romney has now been announced as the winner of the Iowa caucus, dramatically leading Rick Santorum by only 8 votes.
The two candidates have wrestled back-and-forth for first as various locales checked in with GOP officials– who moved today to meet at an undisclosed location to count the votes in secret after the hacker collective Anonymous issued threats to disrupt the caucus.
Ron Paul at a close third with 21%, conceded the race calling himself ‘one of the three winners,’ and dubbed his performance ‘nothing to be ashamed of’. After all, he led polls for months leading into the contest, under heavy fire from media hacks aligned with the GOP establishment ever-eager to dismiss his viability. Paul vowed to fight on, continue raising funds and fighting for victory in what he termed a movement, rather than a campaign.Santorum’s surprise last-minute surge coincides with announcements that the vote in Iowa would be counted at a secret location– yes, vague threats from hacker collective Anonymous gave the pretext to count the votes in secret– and also coincided with statements from top GOP officials strategizing how to effectively take out Ron Paul and diminish his significance. It is no secret that all the stops have been pulled to minimize Paul’s media visibility throughout the campaign trail, with many top GOP figures and media commentators going so far as to pre-script a plan to ignore Iowa in the event that Ron Paul won the caucuses, in order to prevent the Congressman from dominating the national stage.