DES MOINES, Iowa – Rick Santorum received 34 votes more than Mitt Romney in the leadoff Iowa caucuses, state Republican officials reported Thursday, after initially claiming Romney was ahead by eight votes.

Party officials were reluctant to declare an official winner, since the results from eight precincts are still missing and any of those could hold an advantage for Romney.

But Santorum's campaign declared victory in a statement Thursday morning, suggesting the surprise ending to the historically close Iowa caucuses has helped undercut the aura of "inevitability" around Romney.

"We've had two early state contests with two winners," Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley said. "Conservatives can now see and believe they don't have to settle for Romney, the Establishment's moderate candidate. ...

DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. – Mitt Romney has a small lead in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation Republican primary after two tiny towns cast their ballots shortly after midnight Tuesday. But the early morning votes are merely a foreshadow to a busy day in the Granite State as the GOP presidential candidates flit around the state to make their final case to voters.

The first five-minute voting session kicked off in the tiny hamlet of Dixville Notch, whose residents are famous for being the first to cast their ballots each election season.

Romney and Jon Huntsman tied with two votes each in the town. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul each got one. President Obama got three votes.

The small town only has nine registered voters.The nine residents who cast their ballots include three registered Republicans and two registered Democrats.

In a Saturday night debate, ABC News host George Stephanopoulos, a former Democratic strategist for former pro-abortion President Bill Clinton, devoted considerable time to questioning the candidates on the issue of contraception.

Although Stephanopoulos was panned heavily by conservative bloggers and reported for devoting so much time to such a non-controversial topic at a time when the American voting public is focused on the economy, the discussion did provide an opportunity for the Republican candidates to present their pro-life views.

During the discussion, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, outlined his opposition to Roe and his support for better judges.

“I don’t believe they decided that correctly. In my view, Roe v. Wade was improperly decided. It was based upon that same principle.

Trying to take the mantle as frontrunner in the Republican presidential race, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney targeted President Obama on Thursday in their race to win New Hampshire voters while Newt Gingrich targeted the frontrunners, by intentional insults or not.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is reaching for a decisive victory next Tuesday in New Hampshire to solidify his standing. At a morning stop in Salem before heading to South Carolina, Romney labeled Obama a "crony capitalist," invoking a theme that Rep. Michele Bachmann had used before dropping out of the race.

Santorum, under new scrutiny after a strong showing in Iowa's kickoff caucuses, offered himself as "the conservative alternative" to Romney and claimed he's got the momentum to propel his campaign beyond New Hampshire.

"Our office is buzzing," Santorum said after an appearance in Manchester.

It doesn’t look like Mitt Romney could lose New Hampshire, but then again, he can’t really win it either.

Even a 20-point landslide by Romney in New Hampshire would be instantly discounted as merely meeting expectations for the former governor of the neighboring state who keeps a summer home there.

The only way Romney could make news in New Hampshire would be if he ends up in a squeaker. Romney, having skated to a narrow victory in Iowa, would then be seen as hugely vulnerable. The stakes are high, but the risks of such an embarrassment look low.

For Iowa runner up, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, though, both the stakes and the risks are very high.

As the rest of the Republican presidential candidates leap-frog one another in the polls, Mitt Romney has over the last several days watched his numbers quietly rise, lending confidence to his sudden push for a strong finish in the Iowa caucuses.

All along, the former Massachusetts governor's strategy was built around a dominating performance in the first-in-the-nation primary, in New Hampshire. Iowa, a caucus state where he finished a distant second to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2008, had not been a priority for Romney -- he skipped the Iowa straw poll in August and until recently had for the most part kept the state off his campaign itinerary.

But while Romney still looks untouchable for the moment in New Hampshire, several recent polls show him narrowly leading in Iowa -- a contest where he is now devoting all his time.

Challenged on whether he really had his heart in the Iowa game Thursday, Romney said he did, noting that he's looking beyond Iowa as well.

New Hampshire Right to Life is suing the Obama administration for access to records about a decision to fund Planned Parenthood in violation of state rules, a move that comes amid efforts by some state officials to get rid of virtually all federal funding to The Granite State.

The organization filed suit on Thursday after complaining that the Department of Health and Human Services was ignoring its Freedom of Information Act request for documentation explaining why it awarded a $1 million grant to help fund family planning clinics in six cities despite a state decision to reject the money and allegedly absent a competitive process for health clinics to vie for the grant.

The people of New Hampshire "have the right to know why the Obama administration gave Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest baby killer, a million taxpayer dollars while cutting funding for state hospitals and community clinics," New Hampshire Right to Life President Kurt Wuelper said in a statement to news ou

The Obama administration faces a new lawsuit from a pro-life group in New Hampshire on behalf of pro-life residents of the state upset the Obama administration forced it to fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

The New Hampshire Executive Council voted in June to cancel a $1.8 million dollar contract with Planned Parenthood, citing that taxpayers would be subsidizing, at least indirectly, Planned Parenthood’s abortion business.

The council has filed a formal protest with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Government Accountability Office following the Obama Administration’s award of a non-competitive $1 million dollar contract with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England in response.

Just two weeks out from the Iowa Caucuses, Mitt Romney sharpened his attacks on President Obama and laid out his vision for the country's future in what his campaign is calling the beginning of his closing arguments to voters.

Taking a page out of Mr Obama's playbook, the campaign provided him with a teleprompter in what could be interpreted as an effort to make Mr Romney appear more Presidential.

Speaking before a crowd of more than 150 people in Bedford, NH, the former Massachusetts governor accused the President of turning the country into an "entitlement society," re-distributing what is earned by some, to all.

"The truth is that everyone may get the same rewards, but virtually everyone will be worse off... And the only people who truly enjoy any real rewards are those who do the re-distributing-the government," said Romney.

He even invoked the name of former President John F.

Six months ago, political junkies were deriding this year's Republican presidential race as one of the slowest and least exciting nomination battles in recent memory. Mitt Romney looked hard to beat. Newt Gingrich's campaign appeared all but dead. And several key Republicans whom many party insiders had begged to run—including Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Mike Huckabee and Haley Barbour— opted out of the campaign.

Yet that boring Republican race has turned into one of the most unpredictable and chaotic presidential nominating contests in party history. With voting set to begin in a little over three weeks, the race now enters its most crucial phase. Republican voters in the early states will finally have to decide who they want to represent their party against President Obama.

The next 10 days will be the most critical of the campaign, as the candidates begin to make closing arguments to Iowans before most voters tune out the campaign during the Christmas holiday...