Republican Iowa Caucus results thread (entrance poll @8pm ET)

[Leinad]

Audubon is the first GOP county fully reported:

Audubon county, IA:

Took me a while to research the data, but enjoy nonetheless:

In 2012 Santorum was a bit under his statewide average, but Gingrich, Perry and Bachman did a bit better. Overall, those 4 conservatives were 6.8 percentage points better than overall. In 2008 Huck and Thompson got about the exact same numbers as they did statewide. (I'd put Cruz, Carson, Huck, Santorum in that category this year.)

In 2012 Romney got 3% less than statewide, while in '08 the moderate crew of him, McCain, and Giuliani got slightly more than their statewide total.

Paul underperformed by about 3% each time.

Interpret that how you want.

As much of a complete creep as Cruz is, he's much better than Trump.

Cruz isn't my first choice, but he's up there. And almost anyone would be better than Donald.

100% agreed with both of these sentiments. Ron Paul was right when he called Trump "dangerous" and "un-libertarian."

[Leinad]

Alright. I'm all in for Trump 2016 and then Rubio

Hell no. Don't do this, DeadPrez. Trump is as un-libertarian as it gets.

Gary Johnson 2016!

[Leinad]

Is Rubio going to say anything about Cruz or Trump?   He is talking like someone who won.

He did. Maybe not in terms of actual numbers, but tonight he solidified himself as the establishment choice.

This exactly. He won the Establishment mini-primary. Of course, Cruz already won the Conservative mini-primary before the voting began, but now Rubio can credibly call himself a contender in what is now surely a 3-way race.

Also, ditto on wanting Trump to go full crazy. This could be some fun we're in for tonight...

[Leinad]

Politico reporting that Rand Paul will not drop out, and instead is heading to NH

Hopefully he makes the debate so he can advocate for sane policies on national TV.