Yesterday, BabushkaLady posted an article which talked about details in the way delegates are assigned in this republican primary.
I think it's important that everyone understand it. In 2010 the republican party changed the rules on how delegates are assigned to a proportional basis. No longer, in most states, is it winner-take-all.
The key thing to realize is that if no single candidate gets more than 50% of the delegates, we have a situation that is known as a brokered convention. In that case all delegates are released from their pledged candidate and can vote for anyone.
So lets look at Iowa's results for example:
Romney 7
Santorum 7
Paul 7
Gingrich 2
Perry 2
If the convention is brokered, you can expect the Gingrich and Perry delegates to choose someone other than RP.
So we can see that as long as the race is split between enough people, no one will get over 50% of the votes and it will be brokered.
Please read the article for more details:
http://lewrockwell.com/rep2/how-to-s...omination.html
One interesting thing though is that even in states where delegates are compelled to vote for someone, it still pays for RP supporters to be in those positions. The reason is that if the convention is brokered, they can change their vote.