It wasn't supposed to happen this way. But after outspending Rick
Santorum by a ratio of 5 to 1 in campaigns for the Alabama and
Mississippi Republican presidential primaries, Mitt Romney, the former
Massachusetts governor, lost both states to the former U.S. senator
from Pennsylvania -- "a guy who doesn't have a pollster," tweeted
whoever lives behind the Twitter handle, The Democratic Machine.
Romney didn't even manage to make the number two spot in either
contest; he came in third in both.
The pollsters had predicted this would be close one for Romney, but
not against Santorum, who was running behind Romney by some eight or
10 points in the polls. Romney's threat in the south was supposed to
be former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is something of a favorite
son of the region. Romney might squeak out one of the two contests,
the thinking went, and come in second to Gingrich in the other --
which wouldn't have been that big of a deal, since Gingrich had only
won a single primary, in South Carolina, at that point. Santorum,
Romney told CNN, "was at the desperate end of his campaign." Instead,
Santorum trumped Romney in both primaries. That's how much Southern
Republicans don't like Mitt Romney, who is not only regarded as a less
than "severe conservative," as he termed himself in February; he's not
regarded as much of a conservative at all.
Rout of Romney = One Big Mess
So, the Republican Party is in turmoil. A new national poll has
Santorum edging out Romney for frontrunner status, with 34 percent of
Republican primary voters compared to Romney's 30 percent, even though
most of the voters surveyed admitted that they still expect Romney to
win the nomination.
In Tuesday's Southern contests, CBS News reported these results:
With almost all of the precincts reporting in Alabama, Santorum earned
35 percent support, with Newt Gingrich barely edging Mitt Romney out
for second as each won about 29 percent of the vote.
Meanwhile, in Mississippi, with nearly all of the votes in, Santorum
led his rivals with 33 percent support, while Gingrich followed him
with 31 percent. Romney came in third with 30 percent.
It was so bad for Romney that he left the South without sticking
around to make a post-primary speech (though he did call for an end to
Planned Parenthood in a television interview in Kirkwood, Mo., earlier
in the day). Still that's thin gruel for a crowd that apparently goes
in for Santorum's opposition to birth control, period, or his claim
that Satan has set his sights on the United States of America, or his
diatribe against public education.
What Santorum's big Tuesday wins bring him is momentum as the race
moves ahead to Missouri, already proven to be Santorum-friendly
territory in the state's beauty-contest primary last month (delegates
won't be awarded until caucuses that take place this weekend) and
Illinois on March 20, where Santorum will likely use his rust-belt
credentials to good effect.
Gingrich Vows to Stay In
In his second-place valedictory tonight, Gingrich helpfully pointed
out that in a contest he defined as between two conservatives (meaning
himself and Santorum) and one non-conservative (Romney), "the
conservative candidates got nearly 70 percent of the vote..," which
likely had something to do with what sounded like an oblique appeal
from Santorum for Gingrich to get out of the race. "The time is now
for conservatives to pull together," Santorum said, "and the best
chance to win this election...is to nominate a conservative to go up
against Barack Obama on every issue."
Over the weekend, at a gathering of religious-right Santorum-backers
in Houston, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins called
Gingrich "the most influential guy in American politics right now."
Perkins added, "He could be a kingmaker." But Gingrich has no plans to
preside over a Santorum coronation. In his post-primary remarks on
Tuesday night in Birmingham, Ala., Gingrich promised to stay in the
race until the convention.
As the race drags on, it gets harder for Romney to accumulate the
1,144 delegates to the Republican National Convention that he'll need
in order to win the nomination outright. He's way ahead of his rivals
in the delegate count, but if he can't make the nomination mark, it
could be up to delegates to determine the nominee on the convention
floor, in what is known as a brokered convention. Gingrich apparently
relishes the thought.
As the Washington Post reported Gingrich's remarks:
"When the primaries are over, and it's clear no one person has won,"
Gingrich said, convention delegates would ask themselves, "who would
do the best job?"
Newt's superPAC sugar-daddy, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, has stated
his intention to keep fueling the Gingrich-allied group, Winning Our
Future, as long as it takes to keep Santorum from moving too far
ahead. If he remains true to his pledge, the G.O.P. field will be a
bloody mess by the time the general election campaign takes off.
Self-Inflicted Punishment
The chaos in the G.O.P. presidential contest is self-inflicted,
brought about by new rules put in place by former Republican National
Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who actually wanted a brokered
convention, reported Mother Jones' David Corn earlier this week.
Republicans wanted to create excitement, so they fixed the system so
that the contest couldn't be won too early. Looks like they fixed it
real good.
In both Alabama and Mississippi, delegates are awarded
proportionately, so none of the three top candidates came away tonight
empty-handed. In fact, Romney nearly tied Santorum for delegates in
Mississippi (12 and 13, respectively), despite coming in behind
Gingrich, who garnered 11. In Alabama, Romney fared worse, winning
only seven delegates, compared with nine for Gingrich and 15 for
Santorum, according to CBS News. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas came away with
none.
There were also contests tonight in Hawaii and American Samoa, but
those results were not yet in at press time.
As the night drew to a close on the mainland, Mitt Romney's campaign
sent out a tweet:
Will be a late night waiting for results from American Samoa and HI
but a big THANK YOU to everyone who voted in MS and AL. #Mitt2012
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
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