Santorum jolted the Republican presidential race by winning nominating contests in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado, puncturing Romney’s claim to be the unstoppable front-runner.
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Santorum Delivers a Republican Stunner
Well, Missouri’s a beauty contest with no delegates, but Santorum scores some needed momentum and no doubt throws a monkey wrench in Romney’s post-Florida victory parade. See Bloomberg, ” Santorum Gets Two Wins in Republican Race “: Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania won contests in Missouri and Minnesota today, shaking up the Republican presidential race just days after Mitt Romney had won two races in a row to claim front-runner status. The Associated Press called Missouri for Santorum, as he had 55 percent of the vote, with 81 percent of precincts reporting. Romney had 25 percent and U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas had 12 percent. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich wasn’t on the Missouri ballot. The AP also projected a victory for Santorum in Minnesota’s caucuses, where he led with 46 percent of the vote with 38 percent of precincts reporting. Paul had 26 percent, followed by Romney with 16 percent and Gingrich with 11 percent. The results suggest a lingering weakness for Romney, especially among the Republican Party’s most conservative voters who are focused on such social issues as their opposition to abortion and gay marriage. At the same time, Santorum’s new strength may aid Romney in a prolonged fight for the nomination. A revitalized Santorum campaign may mean that he and Gingrich will continue to split the anti-Romney vote, leaving neither with a commanding count of delegates. “After tonight, you’ll see this is a wide open race,” Gingrich said on CNN before the results began to be released.
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Santorum Wins Missouri and Minnesota
Rick Santorum wins in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado — a remarkble success that leaves the Romney camp, “managing expectations.”
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Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri
So, how are Missouri Republicans greeting their chance to participate in a sort-of-hotly-contested primary that will determine exactly no delegates today ? Turnout is “very low, much lower than expected.” The Missouri presidential primary winner won’t receive any delegates, and that’s resulting in low voter turnout. Keep reading this post . . .
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Low Turnout? In Non-Binding Contests? Inconceivable!
Whoohoo! Non-binding caucuses! Non-binding primaries! Can you smell the excitement?! Today in Colorado ! Keep reading this post . . .
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Are You Ready for Some Non-Binding Action?
The good folks at the Republican National Committee send along word about what is really at stake in tomorrow’s caucuses . . . which is . . . not that much: To:
If Rick Santorum surges in the the next few states (Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri’s nonbinding “beauty pageant,” where Newt Gingrich will not appear on the ballot), it’s not that unthinkable that he could end up the premier challenger to Romney. It’s a surprising thought, because since Iowa, Santorum has finished fourth, third, third and fourth. But for whatever it’s worth, Public Policy Polling has Santorum leading Romney slightly in Minnesota and eight percentage points ahead of Gingrich in Colorado for second place. And Romney isn’t competing in Missouri, dismissing the value of a nonbinding contest that amounts to a poll ( albeit one that will cost the state $7 million to administer ). Keep reading this post . . .
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Are We Due for a Surge for Rick?
Romney looks tired here in this CNN interview this morning. Too much post-primary partying, I guess. But it’s exactly the time he needs to be on guard and on his A-game. Instead, he fumbles the post-Florida football and gives ammunition to all of his opponents on both sides of the aisle by reinforcing the perception and reality that he is gobsmackingly out-of-touch. This could easily have been a Saturday Night Live parody. Facepalm : After winning the Florida primary, GOP presidential nominee hopeful Mitt Romney explains to CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien that he is focused on a particular portion of the American population in his campaign. Romney says, “ I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs a repair , I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich…. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.” O’Brien asked him to clarify his remarks saying, “There are lots of very poor Americans who are struggling who would say, ‘That sounds odd.’” The message shouldn’t be “Let Them Eat Food Stamps.” The message shouldn’t be that he’ll “fix” any holes in the safety net. It’s supposed to be: Get them off food stamps, provide them with real educational choice, reform the culture of dependency, and get government out of the way so that businesses and entrepreneurs can thrive — and increase economic opportunities for everyone. Yes, there is a better choice. Latest PPP results: “Trouble ahead for Romney?” What might be most interesting in both states is what happens in a head to head between Romney and either Gingrich or Santorum: -In Missouri Santorum leads Romney 50-37 and in Ohio Santorum leads 45-38. -In Missouri Gingrich leads Romney 43-42 and in Ohio Gingrich leads 42-39. Two takeaways from those numbers: if this ever came down to Romney, Paul, and just one out of Gingrich and Santorum, Romney would be in a lot of trouble. And he’d be in more trouble if the single conservative alternative ended up being Santorum. Santorum is a stronger long term threat to Romney than Gingrich because he has less baggage and is simply much better liked. Santorum is easily the most popular of the Republican candidates in both Missouri (+42 favorability at 63/21, compared to +20 forGingrich and +10 for Romney) and Ohio (+35 at 59/24 compared to +10 for both Gingrich and Romney). It’s just proving hard for Santorum to get much traction while Gingrich is still in the race. *** Update: Romney updated his comments here . I don’t think it helps much. Do you?
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BlunderMitt: Let Them Eat Food Stamps; Plus: PPP results point to Santorum
