Ron Paul places 3rd in Iowa, looks to NH

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Texas Rep. Ron Paul rode a current of youthful discontent to third place in Iowa's Republican presidential caucuses Tuesday, promising to take his outsider bid for the GOP nomination into independent-minded New Hampshire.

"This momentum is going to continue. This movement is going to continue, and we're going to continue scoring, just as we did tonight," Paul told cheering supporters at a hotel in a northern suburb of Des Moines. "We will go on. We will raise the money. And I have no doubt about the volunteers. They will be here."

The libertarian-leaning Paul challenged Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum for the top slot in the leadoff nominating contest, cobbling together an enthusiastic and diverse coalition of college students, veterans and tea party activists in a sign of the divided GOP's struggles ahead.

"There were essentially three winners," Paul told the crowd as it chanted "Doctor Paul, Doctor Paul."

Paul's top-tier performance was a marked improvement on his fifth-place finish four years ago. But Paul waged a far more structured campaign in his second bid for the nomination, raised more money and advertised aggressively on television, attacking former House Speaker Newt Gingrich throughout November.

Paul rose steadily in Iowa polls late last fall as Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain, the Georgia businessman who quit the race in December, all struggled to sustain early curiosity as potential outsider challengers to establishment candidate Romney.