The Iowa Caucus.

In the United States the Republican Party has begun the long and arduous process of selecting their candidate for November's Presidential election. Technically what they're actually doing is selecting delegates to go to the Republican National Convention (RNC) who will then choose the Presidential candidate. So the results of the Caucuses are non-binding and the RNC can still choose a candidate who's yet to make themselves known. As a result I don't really pay it a lot of attention until much later in the process when the field has thinned and there are fewer names and biographies for me to learn.

However from Iowa it's clear that Mitt Romney has emerged as the business candidate. Rick Santorum has emerged as the religious candidate and Ron Paul has emerged as the Tea Party candidate. John Huntsman and Newt Gingrich will now have to go off and decide whether they have enough of a chance of unseating Romney that it's worth them staying in the race. Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann will also have to decide if they can unseat Paul and then go on to beat Romney and Santorum who are clearly the two front runners with only eight votes between them.