good evening. what a wild start to the
gop

presidential primary
season. it was a long night, as close as they get, and perfectly in keeping with the wild swings of this campaign so far. and today, two different campaigns woke up to the ultimate good news/bad news equation in politics. the good news for
mitt romney
, he won in
iowa
. the bad news, it was just by eight votes and he couldn’t crack 25%, just like four years ago and millions of dollars ago. good news for
rick santorum
, a huge second place finish for him. he came within eight votes of winning and now he’s got to go compete with a fraction of the money and the staff of the bigger campaigns. it was such a
wild night
. it went so late the
des moines register
went through half a dozen dummy front pages for just about any outcome until we knew the outcome was going to hinge on eight votes and they could finally put out a morning paper
front page
. today the field of candidates got lighter by one and today the focus shifted to the east to new
hampshire
. the rest of the campaign begins now and our coverage begins tonight with nbc’s
peter alexander
in manchester, new
hampshire
. period of time, good evening.

reporter:
brian, good evening to you. after a long night,
mitt romney
hustled here to new
hampshire
looking to translate the narrow victory into big momentum in the state announcing a key endorsement from a man who has won two
republican primaries
here in the past.
mitt romney
with his wife ann at his side, all smiles as they arrived in new
hampshire
after a dramatic
late night

iowa
win.

get any sleep last night?

no.

reporter:

romney
‘s slim margin of just eight votes over
rick santorum
exposed sharp divisions among republicans.

many of the most conservative elements of the party have not embraced him. they will not embrace him. they do not trust him. so he has a long way to go to get conservatives in his column.

reporter:
the
gop
‘s
2008

presidential nominee
,
john mccain
, today endorsed his former rival arguing new
hampshire
where
romney
holds a wide lead will erase any doubt that
romney
should be the republican nominee.

we will get an overwhelming vote that will catapult this candidate to the
white house
.

reporter:
while the campaign hoped for a triumphant arrival here,
romney
was met by a series of tough, combative questions at this
town hall
organized by his own campaign.

hang on. it’s my turn. you had your turn.

reporter:

newt gingrich
made it clear he will step up his fight despite the disappointing fourth place finish.

will we want a
massachusetts
moderate who will be good at managing the decay.

reporter:
today gingrich welcomed
romney
to the
granite state
by calling him a timid
massachusetts
moderate while continuing to denounce the barrage of
negative campaign
ads from
romney
‘s supporters.

well, it’s pretty clear. he’s not truthful about his record in
massachusetts
and his background. he’s not truthful about his pac which has his staff running it and his millionaire friends donating to it, although in secret.

reporter:

romney
faces challenges on two fronts. gingrich and santorum on the right, huntsman on the left. today huntsman dismissed both the
iowa
results and the
gop
frontrunner.

you can get all the doles and all the mccains in the world, as
romney
probably will. but in the end,
nobody cares
.

reporter:
for his part
ron paul
took the day off following his third place finish here in
iowa
where he nearly tripled his vote total from four years ago showing his message may prove a significant factor in the race.

peter alexander
in manchester starting off our coverage tonight. peter,

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