【BBC0104】美国大选：罗姆尼和桑多伦在爱荷华州打平手

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Iowa caucuses: Romney and Santorum tied in Iowa               

                                                               
                                                                                                               

Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul addressed supporters as the results came out

                        

                     

Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have emerged as front-runners in the first vote by US Republican party supporters on their preferred presidential candidate for November's election.

        Mr Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, finished just eight votes ahead in the Midwest state of Iowa.
        Ron Paul finished third, while Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann settled into a second tier of candidates.
        Rick Perry indicated he was suspending his campaign after finishing fifth.
        The caucus meetings were the first time voters had a say in the race to face Democratic President Barack Obama in November's presidential election.
        Tuesday's contest launched months of caucuses and primary elections in 50 states, Washington DC and other territories, culminating in the Republican National Convention in August where the party nominee will be formally anointed.
         
This was a nail bitter. One US  commentator suggested we need a new image, "tighter than a new tube sock on a cow" was his offering.
        In the end this result has to be good for Romney.
        He's achieved this in a state he hadn't bothered to fight until the last few weeks, where he didn't have much of a campaign.
        But it also underscores his problem. He can't break away from the pack.
                  
      

The BBC's Mark Mardell says that in the end, this result has to be good for Mitt Romney, achieving it in a state he hadn't bothered to fight until the last few weeks.

  'Game on!'              In a brief speech late in the evening, Mr Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, kept his sights firmly trained on Mr Obama rather than engaging his Republican rivals or claiming victory.
        "The gap between his promises four years ago and his performance is as great as anything I've ever seen in my life," he said, before crying: "On to New Hampshire!"
        Mr Santorum also stopped short of declaring victory, but declared "Game on!" He praised his faith and his family in a speech which marked his own entry to the national spotlight.
        Mr Paul, a Texas congressman, finished third and vowed to continue onto New Hampshire, which holds a primary election next week.
        "This momentum is going to continue," he told a jubilant crowd of supporters. "We will go on, we will raise the money."
  Negative advertising              Finishing fifth, Texas Governor Rick Perry said he was returning to his home state in order to "determine whether there is a path forward for myself in this race".
          Continue reading the main story                                        [td]                        

Percentage of the vote
Santorum	25
Romney	25
Paul	22
Gingrich	13
Perry	10
Bachmann	5
Huntsman	1
Source: AP

      99% of precincts reporting
                  
      

Former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, who saw a brief lead evaporate under a barrage of negative advertising last month, pledged to remain in the race and challenge Mr Romney, "a Massachusetts moderate".

        "We are not going to go out and run nasty ads," said Mr Gingrich, who finished fourth.
        "But I do reserve the right to tell the truth. And if the truth seems negative that may be more of a comment on his record than it is about politics."
        Mrs Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman who won the Iowa straw poll last summer, finished sixth, and urged voters not to let the media anoint a Republican nominee based solely on the Iowa results.
        Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman was on the ballot, but did not campaign in Iowa.
  Small-town meetings        
      

An estimated record 123,000 voters gathered at more than 1,700 fire stations, schools, public buildings and private homes.

        Many of the caucuses were tiny affairs held in small towns in each of Iowa's 99 counties.
        Iowa was not expected to settle the contest - John McCain, the eventual Republican nominee in 2008, came fourth in the state's caucuses that year - but it will help shape the race for the White House.
        The Iowa campaign had been a roller-coaster affair since the summer, with Mrs Bachmann, Mr Perry and Mr Gingrich each taking a brief turn at the head of the pack.
        Those three - along with ex-candidate Herman Cain - were buoyed by support from conservatives unsatisfied with Mr Romney, who held steady in second place in polling. But each in turn collapsed under further scrutiny or, in Mr Gingrich's case, heavy negative advertising.
        After Iowa, the state of New Hampshire holds its primary election on 10 January. Mitt Romney has a big lead there, and Mr Santorum consistently polls less than 5% in the New England state.
        Over the next six months, each US state will vote on the presidential contenders before a final nominee is selected.
        Voters remain concerned by the slow pace of economic recovery from the recession that started during the end of the presidency of George W Bush and officially ended in 2009.



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