Wednesday, March 7, 2012

With No Super Tuesday Knockout Punch, a Bruising GOP Battle Plods On

With No Knockout Punch, a Bruising Battle Plods On

Mitt Romney won the delegates, but not necessarily the argument.


Ohio Results » Candidate Pct.
Romney 38.0%
Santorum 37.0
Gingrich 14.6
Paul 9.3
Others 1.2

9:26 AM 99% reporting

Tenn. Results » Candidate Pct.
Santorum 37.3%
Romney 28.0
Gingrich 24.0
Paul 9.0
Others 1.7

Mitt Romney won the delegates, but not necessarily the argument.

His quest to win the Republican presidential nomination has always
resembled a detailed, methodical business plan. Mr. Romney, who spent
much of his life fixing troubled corporations, must now decide whether
steps are necessary to repair his lethargic candidacy.

Mr. Romney had hoped that a string of Super Tuesday victories in
contests from Vermont to Alaska would effectively bring the Republican
race to a close.

But he found himself winning over Rick Santorum by only the slimmest
of margins with almost all the votes counted in Ohio, the most coveted
primary of the night, while losing other contests across the South.

The Republican race was always destined to plod on, considering that
none of the candidates have reached even half of the 1,144 delegates
needed to win the nomination. But the campaign is suddenly bracing for
new questions about Mr. Romney's ability to piece together a coalition
needed to move closer to a general election fight with President
Obama.

Mr. Romney had hoped a commanding victory over Mr. Santorum in Ohio
would add another Midwestern battleground state to his tally and
provide new latitude to begin directly engaging Mr. Obama. The heart
of his case to his fellow Republicans has always been that he is not
only the most electable candidate in the field, but also the best
prepared and most suited for what is sure to be a brutal general
election.

But the outcome of the contests on Tuesday, while allowing him to
amass more delegates than any of his rivals, did little to resolve the
questions about his ability to connect with voters, especially
conservatives.

With the general election exactly eight months away, Republican
leaders have increasingly argued that the time had come to move beyond
the party's messy intramural fight. They assumed that Mr. Romney's
strong financial advantages and muscular campaign organization would
make that happen on Tuesday night.

Even the president anticipated a shift in the campaign. He staged his
first White House news conference of the year hours before the votes
started coming in to assail the Republican field for what he called
irresponsible talk about war with Iran. He declined to answer
questions about specific candidates, but flashed a smile when asked
directly about Mr. Romney.

"Good luck tonight," Mr. Obama said. "Really."

It was an air of bravado from a man who endured his own long
nominating fight four years ago. The story of Mr. Obama's winding path
to the White House is frequently offered as a testimonial by the
Romney campaign when faced with questions about potential damage from
a protracted and bitter primary season.

Supporters of Mr. Romney worry that he has been politically bruised by
the right-leaning shift of the Republican contests, but it is far from
certain that any damage will be lasting. Republicans may be deeply
divided now, but defeating Mr. Obama is a powerful unifying force in
the party.

"I'd love for this to be over sooner rather later so we can focus on
the president's record," Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, a Romney
supporter, said in an interview on Tuesday night. "But however long it
takes, the desire to replace President Obama will motivate
conservatives and libertarians in such a significant way."

For Mr. Romney, the Super Tuesday scorecard was decidedly mixed.

He seized upon his wins in Idaho, Massachusetts, Vermont and Virginia
— two of which are reliably Democratic states in presidential
elections. But Mr. Santorum pointed to victories in North Dakota,
Oklahoma and Tennessee as evidence that many Republicans were still
looking for a conservative alternative. And Newt Gingrich held up a
sweep of his home state of Georgia as proof of his own revival.

Mr. Romney built his victories Tuesday among a coalition of voters who
say electability is their chief concern, as well as among older,
better-educated and higher-income voters. The critical set of white,
working-class voters divided their loyalties between Mr. Romney and
Mr. Santorum.

But when voters in Ohio and Tennessee were asked which candidate best
understood the problems of average Americans, according to exit polls,
Mr. Romney fell short of Mr. Santorum.

The lineup of Super Tuesday states never looked particularly friendly
to Mr. Romney. He campaigned in Georgia, North Dakota and Tennessee,
hoping to win at least a share of the delegates, but he fought hard to
earn a convincing win in Ohio. He fared poorly with very conservative
voters and evangelical Christians, according to interviews with voters
as they left the polls, and also struggled among voters who said it
mattered a great deal that a candidate shared their religious beliefs.


Ohio Results » Candidate Pct.
Romney 38.0%
Santorum 37.0
Gingrich 14.6
Paul 9.3
Others 1.2

9:28 AM 99% reporting

Tenn. Results » Candidate Pct.
Santorum 37.3%
Romney 28.0
Gingrich 24.0
Paul 9.0
Others 1.7

9:28 AM 99% reporting
More Results
Live Coverage of the Tennessee Primary
State-by-State Results
Delegate Tracker
Multimedia Interactive Feature
The Candidates' Super Tuesday Speeches Slide Show
Super Tuesday PrimariesRelated
Romney Appears the Ohio Winner; Santorum Strong (March 7, 2012)
Voters Said the Economy Was Their Main Issue (March 7, 2012)
Ohio's Divided Political Passions on Display in Vote (March 7, 2012)
'He Should Be All Right,' Massachusetts Voters Say of Their
Ex-Governor (March 7, 2012)
Gingrich Takes Georgia, Keeping Campaign Alive With a Southern
Strategy (March 7, 2012)
Across the Primary States, Voters Weigh Principles and Pragmatism
(March 7, 2012)
Related in Opinion
Editorial: Super Tuesday (March 7, 2012)
Ross Douthat: The Future of the Santorum Coalition (March 7, 2012)
The Loyal Opposition: The Republican Primary Voters' Religious Test
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Mr. Romney, whose candidacy has largely been built around a strategy
of letting his Republican rivals fade away, is again facing the
challenge of trying to improve his ability to connect with voters and
excite them. The next string of contests, including Mississippi,
Alabama, Kansas and Missouri, may also be challenging states in which
to build momentum.

"I'm not going to let you down," Mr. Romney told supporters gathered
in a half-filled hotel ballroom in Boston. "I'm going to get this
nomination."

A significant share of advantages in the Republican nominating fight
remains on Mr. Romney's side. He has more money at his disposal than
any of his rivals, particularly if he decides to invest his own money
into the campaign, as he did during his first presidential run four
years ago.

Even with a narrow win in Ohio, the scoreboard for Mr. Romney already
includes victories in a succession of general election battlegrounds:
New Hampshire, Florida, Nevada and Michigan. His successes have been
more tactical than triumphant, but the delegates are worth the same.
And Mr. Romney emerged from Super Tuesday with a strong mathematical
advantage that cannot be overlooked.

But one of the best opportunities for Mr. Romney to accelerate his
march to the nomination was to convincingly defeat Mr. Santorum in
Ohio. The outcome was not clear by the time Mr. Romney took the stage
to deliver his speech late Tuesday night.

"This is a process of gathering enough delegates to become the
nominee," Mr. Romney said. "I think we're on the track to have that
happen."

He offered no predictions of when.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/us/politics/no-super-tuesday-knockout-punch.html?pagewanted=2&hp

--
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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