Poll: What Do You Think of the Iowa Caucus Results?

What a difference two months makes.

In late October, Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich came out as the winners in the . Mitt Romney came in third place with 11 votes.

Not much was said about Cain Tuesday night, and second place didn't go to Gingrich.

Instead, editors, wonks and commentators across the country were buzzing about former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s eight-vote win in the Iowa caucuses over former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum:

Patch coverage called the candidates 

The headline on the Des Moines Register’s website called it a “razor-thin win.”

And The Washington Post said Romney “edged” out Santorum.  

However it was described, the Iowa caucus results have now catapulted at least three candidates to New Hampshire and beyond. (The old cliché is there are three tickets out of Iowa -- first, second and third place.)

Local observers in Maryland were buzzing over the results Tuesday.

Dennis Lane, a blogger and Independent voter in Ellicott City, said the lack of a definitive win highlighted the “rift” in the Republican party.

“They can’t figure out what they were going to be,” he said. “Is it the Tea Party or the more moderate [part of the party.] The more they fight against each other the better for Democrats.”

Howard County Councilman Calvin Ball, a Democrat, praised the process, saying it was “helpful for everyone to see the scrutiny of the ideas in the Republican Party.”

He said watching the candidates challenge each other on how they would implement their proposals was “good for the process, good for the American people -- and very good for the Democratic party.”

The Howard County Republican Party does not endorse any candidate until after the nomination has been announced, but Howard County Republican Central Committee Chair  she was personally supporting Romney.

Shields made no predictions Tuesday before the caucus about what the outcome of the race would be.

“This year is so strange,” she said, “and I don’t know what to believe. Everything changes every day.”

New Hampshire experts are saying Iowa’s result will have little impact in their state, which has more moderate Republicans who historically have not supported socially conservative candidates who have done well in Iowa, according to the Los Angeles Times.

With reporting from Patch editor Brandie Jefferson.