'Mass. Moderate' Mitt Romney wins Iowa caucus by 8 votes

Mitt RomneyFormer Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is in the driver's seat early in the 2012 campaign toward the GOP nomination after his narrow victory in Iowa as Florida Republicans await their chance to vote in the Jan. 31 primary.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A win is a win, even by eight votes and Mitt Romney, dubbed the "Massachusetts Moderate" by former House speaker Newt Gingrich, kept his front runner status over upstart upstart Rick Santorum in the Iowa caucus.

Gingrich is holding out hope is past associations with President Regan back in the 80s will jump start his Conservative label with GOP voters who are of the opinion that Romney represents the best hope of Keeping President Obama from another four years in the White House.

Rick Perry is returning to Texas to assess whether he's viable and Michelle Bachman is skipping New Hampshire and going straight to South Carolina.

Still lurking is Ron Paul, who like Santorum may be what's left of the race before the Florida primary later this month.