Iowa cockeyed

It's hard to find a sane person, outside of Iowa, who pays any attention to the Iowa caucuses.

Whoever wins the Republican vote there almost never wins the nomination.

So, you would expect Rick Santorum to win in Iowa.

But, he didn't. He lost by 8 votes to Mitt Romney.

This is bad news for Romney.

Iowa has its fair share of evangelical Christians who don't cotton to Mormons. And, 75 percent of Iowans on Tuesday voted against Romney.

Santorum, who has extremist views on social issues that place him far out of the mainstream, got the same percentage as Romney, who will win in New Hampshire next week.

But, in South Carolina, evangelicals, fundamentalists and religious extremists will once again come into play.

The die-hard Christians in the South, don't care for Mormonism or Catholicism or Judaism or Islam. They don't even consider them Americans.

They'll go for anyone but Romney.

Factor in those voters who don't care as much about religion and you'll find they don't like Romney because he is a cold, calculating politician who will flip-flop when necessary to get any vote possible.

But, he is lily white, which plays well in the South.

Romney's problem is that when he becomes the GOP nominee, many of the evangelicals may not vote at all next November. This could have a negative effect on down-ticket Republican candidates.

Getting out the vote for Romney could prove problematic for the GOP.

In some ways, though, it's sad to see Michelle Bachmann leave the field after one event. She was fun to have around because she was so wacky.

So was Herman Cain, one of the handful of black Republicans in America.

But, the GOP field is still flush with loonies like Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.

They'll provide us with hours of entertainment over the next few months by saying and doing the craziest things.