Er…caucuses… have yielded victories to the leaders of the three Republican parties: The youth-oriented Libertarians, the evangelical conservatives, and the party that only wants to beat Obama.

It is a piece of traditional wisdom that if they can’t fall in love with a candidate Republicans will, in the end, simply fall in line. The primary goal of the Republican party is to defeat Obama and the view of the Republican establishment is that Romney is most likely to be able to do that. Evidence: McCain rushing off to endorse Romney.

On the other hand,  Romney’s eight vote victory margin over Santorum isn’t exactly an overwhelming vote of confidence considering the immense amounts of money spent by his “independent,” I-don’t- know-anything-about-those-guys, political pac.

John Huntsman, potentially the most appealing Republican of the bunch, didn’t contest the Iowa dog fight. He understood that with the nation’s most powerful geo-political and financial adversary being China, Iowa conservatives would be quick to reject him. Hey…who needs a former ambassador to China who speaks Mandarin. (Certainly not supporters of the neo-isolationist Ron Paul.)

The next primaries are going to be immensely amusing…noisy, rancorous, and expensive. If the three (or four) survivors continue until the convention, and the convention deadlocks, who knows…maybe Jeb Bush will step in to try for a Bush family political hat trick.

All this sound and fury signifying nothing would be really funny Reality TV if it weren’t so serious.