Ron Paul wins 21 of 25 delegates elected in Iowa

[Mr. Morden]

Of course, one could ask, why even have delegates at all?  Why not just have the primary/caucus vote automatically determine who the nominee is, without having to go through the intermediate step of delegates?  The answer of course being that the assumption that the "voters" should determine who the nominee is is still a relatively new thing, and most of the system that we have is a holdover from the era of smoke-filled rooms.

But no, this is not going to cause a re-think of the nominating process.  Assuming that Romney still wins the nomination on the first ballot as expected, no one is going to remember this in six months.  The 2016 primaries will operate under exactly the same rules as the 2012 primaries, because the national parties just don't care about the silliness of the caucus system or delegate allocation.