Poll: What Do You Think of the Iowa Caucus Results?

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s eight-point win in Tuesday night’s Iowa caucus over former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has been called a lot of things by editors around the country:

Patch coverage called the candidates

The headline on the Des Moines Register’s website called it a “razor-thin win.”

And The Washington Post said Romney “edged” out Santorum.  

Whatever it was, the Iowa caucus result has now catapulted at least three candidates to New Hampshire and beyond. (The old cliché is there are three tickets out of Iowa -- first, second and third place.)

Local observers in Maryland were buzzing over the results Tuesday.

Dennis Lane, a blogger and Independent voter in Ellicott City, said the lack of a definitive win highlighted the “rift” in the Republican party.

“They can’t figure out what they were going to be,” he said. “Is it the Tea Party or the more moderate [part of the party.] The more they fight against each other the better for Democrats.”

Howard County Councilman Calvin Ball, a Democrat, praised the process, saying it was “helpful for everyone to see the scrutiny of the ideas in the Republican Party.”

He said watching the candidates challenge each other on how they would implement their proposals was “good for the process, good for the American people -- and very good for the Democratic party.”

The Howard County Republican Party does not endorse any candidate until after the nomination has been announced, but Howard County Republican Central Committee Chair she was personally supporting Romney.

Shields made no predictions Tuesday before the caucus about what the outcome of the race will be.

“This year is so strange,” she said, “and I don’t know what to believe. Everything changes every day.”

New Hampshire experts are saying Iowa’s result will have little impact in their state, which has more moderate Republicans who historically have not supported socially conservative candidates who have done well in Iowa, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Weigh in below or in our poll: Of the top three candidates in Iowa, who do you think will win the Republican nomination?

With reporting from Patch editor Brandie Jefferson.