Romney: 'Here's looking at you, kid.' Rick Paves Way To Casablanca.

NYDN: "Mitt Romney pulled off a shocker."

"It is decidedly so."

Tuesday a.m. I divined on Facebook the Iowa cauci winners: 1. Romney.  2. Santorum.  3. Paul. The message:  your vote matters. Sweater boy Santorum comes out of Iowa with juice but Romney's got the dough, org, and today, John McCain's endorsement (Santorum did not support McCain in 2008)).  Romney, the presumptive Repub nominee after this embarrassing presidential reality show which should've been canceled after 13 weeks. 

The best part?  All-knowing, all-seeing TV news blowhards shaking their Magic 8-Balls all night and getting the same answer:  "Reply hazy. Try again later." Brian Stelter NYT "Tight Race Catches TV Anchors by Surprise."  Mediaite: Watch CNN "lose it."

Stelter: The cable news networks had been preparing for months to show off their election season staffs and technological toys. . . . At 11 p.m., the CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer went ahead and projected the third- through seventh-place finishers, but not the first or second, given the tiny gap between Mr. Santorum and Mr. Romney.  In an e-mail, Mr. Blitzer said it felt fine to be unable to call a winner this late in the evening: “I always like a tight race and appreciate finding out the winner the old-fashioned way.” 

CNN's John King invoked Steve Jobs's reported last words: Left unspoken was the fact that viewers might stay up longer to find out, too. “Wow, just wow,” John King of CNN said as he looked at his “Magic Wall” of Iowa vote counts. One of Iowa’s counties showed up as a shade of green — indicating an exact tie.

NYT

Wash Post