Your Voice: Upstate Voters Talk Iowa Caucus Results

Now that the dust has somewhat settled on the Iowa caucuses we asked our team of pundits for their thoughts. They’re joined this go-around by Taft Matney.

We’ll start off with Taft, a public relations professional and Mauldin resident. You can follow him on Twitter @TaftMatney or @CrescentMag.

“There’s no doubt that even with Governor Romney’s eight vote victory, the night’s real winner was Senator Santorum who showed that pavement pounding and personal touches still work in an era where so much communication is electronically driven. It gives him a big boost going in to New Hampshire, but with the other candidates having purchased most of the available TV time, wearing out that shoe leather over the next week becomes even more important to him.

“Iowa’s results illustrate the divide in passions of Republicans on the evangelical right who supported Santorum versus those with more of a focus on jobs, the economy, and beating President Obama in November who supported Romney, and there’s still a fluidity that will keep a clear frontrunner from emerging right now. We’ll start seeing candidates suspend their campaigns after receiving underwhelming results. With media markets that level the playing field for candidates with smaller coffers, South Carolina remains a major player in the primary process over the next few weeks.”

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Next up is James Akers, a realtor with the Marchant Company in Greenville. You can follow James on Twitter @jamesakersjr:

"If Romney can win next week then he should be the frontrunner in SC, especially with Haley campaigning for him. If that is the case it's over before Valentine’s Day.Santorum can't win in NH and I don't think he do better than third in SC.  

"Finishing in the top three looks good for Ron Paul and it means more money. He is still the only candidate seriously looking at other states in addition to the early states. In the end, he could be one to watch."

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George McLeer, the Executive Director of the Mauldin Cultural Center is next up. You can follow George on Twitter @gpmcleer and @mauldincultural.

"I'm not surprised that Santorum gained more support over the past week - but the amount of support he has gotten has blown me away. His tour of every county paid off, and old-school handshakes have propelled him towards the top. On the other hand, take note of how Romney is still at the top even after he left Iowa early and focused his efforts elsewhere."

New Hampshire will be a different battle - Huntsman has invested a lot of time there, as has Romney. I think NH will be a different battle all together. I predict Romney, Newt, Santorum and Huntsman will lead the conversation there. But then again, who knows what scandal will arise in the next five days."

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Next we hear from Jane Kizer, who closely follows all things political at the local and national level. You can follow Jane on Twitter @JaneKizer:

"I think Santorum has had a very successful two weeks. The main few things this has shown are:

1-he will no longer hear 'I like you, but you can't win.'

2-he is the top conservative between himself, Perry and Bachmann (these three had been grouped in prior weeks)

3-you can win with little funds by meeting the voters."

"Romney did as expected. Ron Paul had a good showing and will be a contender for a while."

"Perry and Bachmann tried their best to convince us they had a chance in this race near the end. Newt settled in the middle of these two groups."

As far as Bachmann pulling out, I think it is time for candidates to put country above self. The more we split our vote, the worse the candidate is we will get. I hear 70 percent are against Romney. But if we split that 70 percent, Romney will win."

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And we wrap it up with Karen Martin who believes the results in Iowa illustrate a flaw in the system. Karen can be found on Twitter @karmartin:

"I know it’s only wishful thinking, but think of what a triumph it would be if, for the love of country, the remaining non-Romney candidates who actually are Republicans, would come to an agreement and all but one drop. It would be an act of patriotism seldom seen in our generation."

Hopefully the conservatives will reflect on this primary season for the future and we will train ourselves to be pragmatists instead of emotionally driven.  We all knew the conservative vote would be split, yet there was no 'elder statesman' … I’m thinking someone of Jim DeMint’s caliber … who was willing to have a stern word early on. It was all kumbayah and no brass tacks."

"Finally, Iowa should indeed be considered irrelevant after this and a saner primary schedule looked at.Perhaps begin with the states with the lowest number of delegates and proceed to the highest number. Not my original idea:"

http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/286542/how-gop-presidential-primary-calendar-ought-be