Given how the process works, when all is said and done it is possible that neither Ron Paul nor Mitt Romney get any Iowa delegates to the Republican Nation Convention!

Now you may wonder how this is possible, but it has to do with the fact that the Iowa Caucuses do not award delegates. Rather, they pick delegates to the County Conventions who pick delegates to the state convention who pick delegates to the national convention. And as Michael Bates of BatesLine notes, if Ron Paul (and Mitt Romney) don't rise above 25% support statewide, the delegates supporting the other candidates may be able to deny them delegates to the State and national conventions.

At the county level, there may be a few counties with a concentration of Paul supporters where the majority of county delegates will be Paul fans and will elect their own to the state convention. But at most county conventions, Paul's support will be less than 25%, and "Non-Paul" delegates will band together to keep Paul supporters away from the state convention.

If Paul is to have any backers at all at the state convention, it will only happen if the campaign successfully mobilizes its supporters to constitute a majority of the caucusers at a majority of the precincts in at least one county. If Paul's 25% support is spread evenly across the state, he will have no delegates at the Iowa state convention and no delegates from Iowa in Tampa.

This outcome would not be the result of a grand establishment conspiracy against Ron Paul. It would be a reflection of how Paul polarizes the Republican electorate. While Santorum, Perry, Bachmann, and Gingrich supporters may disagree about the relative merits of their candidates, they are all likely to agree with each other and differ strongly with Paul supporters on issues like Iran, Israel, drug legalization, and whether 9/11 was an "inside job."

The supporters of these four candidates may likewise band together to prevent Romney supporters from advancing to the county convention, so that, if there's still an active contest in June, the convention would pick national delegates who will back the non-Romney and non-Paul candidate still in the race.

I've mentioned my sense that a brokered convention might not be a bad thing for the GOP. This sort of scenario is one way we could find ourselves heading to that scenario.