Huffington Post – AMES, Iowa — Michele Bachmann is Rick Perry’s main rival now in the battle to give Republicans a viable alternative to Mitt Romney. Tim Pawlenty’s campaign is on life support. And Ron Paul’s jaw-dropping straw poll result showed how much the Republican party has turned toward a robust, full-throated, small government conservatism.

Those were the lessons of Ames in 2011.

The 4,823-vote win by Rep. Bachmann (R-Minn.) was announced as Perry greeted voters in New Hampshire. The Texas governor had flown there after announcing his candidacy earlier in the day in South Carolina.

Despite not having his name on the ballot, Perry got a surprisingly high number as well: 718 votes. That beat Mitt Romney’s total of 567 votes, despite the fact that the former Massachusetts governor’s name was on the ballot while Perry was a write-in.

“Romney better strap it on and get on the field,” Henry Barbour, an influential Republican consultant and national committee member from Mississippi, told The Huffington Post.

Members of the Romney camp in the spin room argued that the results were good for their man, in that Perry and Bachmann will fight for the hard-core evangelical and Tea Party vote in Iowa — leaving their candidate, whose expectations are now very low here — a chance to make a move.

But the close second place finish by Paul — the Texas congressman finished the day with a very impressive tally of 4,671 votes — also showed the power of the Libertarian-leaning philosophy that he espouses.

Former George W. Bush advisor Matt Dowd said the results show that the field is wide open in Iowa and elsewhere, especially since Ron Paul — “a pro-drug, apologize-to-Iran guy who could never win the nomination” — finished such a strong second.