Hard for Romney to explain this away
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, with a sweep in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado on Tuesday, has now won more nominating contests than any other candidate in the Republican presidential race.
Hard for Romney to explain this away
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
There are a number of ways to spin it away or place an asterisk next to it, but the fact is unavoidable: Rick Santorum has won more nominating contests than any other candidate in the Republican presidential race.
Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, swept frontrunner Mitt Romney in three states Tuesday, winning caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado, as well as a presidential preference primary in Missouri. On one level, these results scrambled once again the GOP race, bringing the potential for chaos, and on another they returned it to a familiar storyline: the struggle of conservative elements in the party’s base to overcome misgivings about Romney and get in line, or instead settle on a viable alternative.
It was a breakthrough for the former Pennsylvania senator, who had been an afterthought since a razor close victory in the Iowa caucuses Jan. 3. Now he faces the twin challenges of needing to broaden his coalition and increase his fundraising, to try to prove he can hang with the well-financed and organized Romney campaign.
There are no contests until the Arizona and Michigan primaries on Feb. 28.
No actual delegates were at stake Tuesday. Missouri’s primary was a so-called “beauty contest,” a chance for Republican activists to express their preferences for a nominee, and the results in the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses merely kicked off multi-stage processes of selecting delegates for the GOP convention in Tampa this summer, and are not binding on those choices, made in county and state conventions later.
But perceptions, obviously, matter.
It's clear there was an embarrassing fall-off in support for Romney that could be hard to explain away.
In Colorado four years ago, Romney won about 42,000 votes out of 70,000 cast. On Tuesday, he captured 23,000 out of 65,000.
In the 2008 Missouri primary, in which delegates were at stake and which fell on Super Tuesday, got about 172,000 votes out of 589,000 cast. Last night, Romney got around 64,000 out of roughly 233,000.
And in Minnesota, it was 26,000/63,000 for Romney in 2008 and 8,000/47,000 for Romney on Tuesday.
Including his victory in Iowa, Santorum has now won four contests. Romney has won three (NH, Florida and Nevada) and Newt Gingrich, the former speaker has finished on top in one (South Carolina).
The Pea Bag Party finally woke up and relaized that Kerry McRomney is to the left of president Obama. I never understood republicans going ape-sh*t over Obamacare only to nominate the guy responsible for Romneycare. lolz....the GOP is a mess now!— The Fundamentals of the Economy are Fine
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- Santorum would be a good candidate for Pope. But for President? Get serious.— butchcat
- I feel sorry for the GOP.— BobSG
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- Hillary won:
NJ
PA
FLA
INDY
MICHGN
KENTY
S DAKTA
MASS
TEX
OKA
RI
OHIO
TENN
AZ
AK
CAL
NY
In 2008. I guess that was easily explained away??? LOL!!! Notice how the Libs are saying "I feel sorry", their way of putting themselves into that ever present denial.— sarah89 - Huh? What does that even mean? Every one of your posts that I have read have been nothing but a jumble of seemingly random words and some condemnation of "libs," which, to you, I assume means everyone to the left of Mussolini. I bet you're a huge Sarah Palin fan.
Anyway, your point, best as I can figure, is that Hilary Clinton won some states in 2008. Yes, she did. Obama won more states and by much wider margins, and won a lot of the early states so he got the most delegates and thus the nomination. That's how nominating processes work. - A conservative is a liberal who hasn't had a new idea in roughly 20 years. You can pray things don't change or you can realize things change. — justacarpenter
- Your confused ideation and pointless list making bespeaks schizophrenia. Please get yourself help. — Charles B
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- Darn, you beat me to it. If republicans are so upset with Obama, then why are less voters coming out to endorse a nominee? — mike l
- How the tent has shrunk.— DennisM
You can reach Tom Fitzgerald at 215-854-2718 or tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
Reach Thomas at tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
