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The GOP front-runner started the week telling Iowa supporters, "I need every vote." He didn't know how right he was. After an eight-vote victory in Iowa, he left for the loving embraces of New Hampshire and John McCain. Then came South Carolina, and not quite so much love.

The eight votes that separated Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum equal 0.00654 percent of all ballots cast in the Iowa caucuses.

Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum finished virtually even in Iowa's caucuses Tuesday, but after Rep. Michele Bachmann's sixth-place finish, she announced Wednesday that she is suspending her campaign. For more on the GOP race and the next contest — Tuesday's New Hampshire primary — Linda Wertheimer talks with NPR's Brian Naylor, who's in the city of Manchester.

Michele Bachmann's hopes had been pinned on doing well in the Hawkeye State, where last summer she briefly soared in state polls and, in mid-August, won the Iowa Republican Party's presidential straw poll in Ames.

The field of GOP challengers narrowed a day after the caucuses as Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said she is ending her 2012 presidential bid. Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Rick Perry went home to regroup after his poor showing in the Hawkeye State.

After Mitt Romney's narrow win in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, the GOP presidential hopefuls move on to New Hampshire, where voters cast their ballots in a primary next week. For more on the Republican presidential race, Steve Inskeep speaks to NPR's Brian Naylor, who is in New Hampshire.

The poll looked at the effects of Iowa and found Mitt Romney maintaining a commanding lead.

Listen to a special podcast from NPR °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ on the first presidential contest of the year — and where the race goes from here.

ANALYSIS: The caucuses are largely an excuse for candidates to try to charm voters for the cameras, and for journalists to harass candidates, voters and the journalists' own audiences.

Like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2008, Rick Santorum pulled off a late surge in Iowa with an appeal to social conservatives. Huckabee came in third in New Hampshire, then faded. Can Santorum avoid the same fate?