Your Guide to the New Hampshire Primary

It was a good night to be Mitt Romney

(NEWSER) - The New Hampshire primary is in the books, and pundits are poring over the results for insight. Here's what they're saying:

• "Expectations, schmexpectations: (Mitt) Romney had a great night," writes Nate Silver of the New York Times . Romney missed his poll numbers, but was swiftly declared winner, "a more tangible benchmark of a 'good' performance."

And according to this tiny village, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman are tied

(NEWSER) - The village of Dixville Notch is notable not just for the fact that it only has nine registered voters, but for the fact that those voters also are the first in New Hampshire to state their choice in today's primary. Their nine ballots were cast one minute after midnight—unincorporated towns that claim less than 100 residents can open the polls at 12am—and, according to this wee hamlet, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman are the very, very early frontrunners, with two votes each. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul both walked away with one; Barack Obama scooped up the remaining three, reports the AP . More»

...And a lot of spin afterward

(NEWSER) - History suggests that it doesn’t matter who actually wins tonight in Iowa—it matters who exceeds expectations, or fails to meet them. The media is always flabbergasted by strange Iowa finishes, but they shouldn’t be, writes Nate Silver of the New York Times , because thanks to unreliable polls they happen all the time, and seem especially likely this year. “A wide range of outcomes remain possible in Iowa even at this late hour,” he warns, and as you can see, his final predictions contain wide margins of error: More»

Even though Santorum didn't bow out until April 10

(NEWSER) - No one's been nominated yet—but the media crowned Mitt Romney the winner of the GOP primaries after he took Michigan on Feb. 28, a Pew report finds. Of course, Romney didn't essentially seal the deal until Rick Santorum dropped out. That happened on April 10, weeks after the media had effectively called the race for Romney, finds the report, which tracked 11,000 news outlets from Jan. 2 to April 15. After Feb. 28, we saw "a suddenly intense discussion of 'delegate math' and the conclusion that no other candidate could win," explains the report's co-author. More»

Mitt Romney poised for the win as voters hit the polls

(NEWSER) - Illinois votes for its GOP candidate of choice today, with 69 delegates at stake—the second-most of any state so far. Here's what the experts at Politico and the Daily Beast have their eye on:

• Can Mitt Romney crack 50%? Polls have Romney heavily favored in the state, and with Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich barely trying, passing the simple majority mark is possible. That would "send a powerful signal that the clock is about to expire for his GOP rivals," writes Charles Mahtesian for Politico.