Free Republic

Mitt Romney acknowledged on Wednesday that his path to the Republican presidential nomination is not going to be easy after three shock losses to newly ascendant rival Rick Santorum. A day after Santorum beat him in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, Romney attempted to play down the results, saying his campaign did not devote a lot of time and money to the three state nominating contests and chose to compete strongly elsewhere.

Beneath Rick Santorum's stunning three-state sweep on Tuesday stands another stubborn sign of dissatisfaction with the status quo: Republican turnout is down. I'm talking embarrassingly, disturbingly, hey-don't-you-know-it's-an-election-year bad. It is a sign of a serious enthusiasm gap among the rank and file, and a particularly bad omen for Mitt Romney and the GOP in the general election. Here's the tale of the tape, state by state, beginning with Tuesday night: Minnesota had just more than 47,000 people turn out for its caucuses this year -- four years ago it was nearly 63,000 -- and Romney came in first, not a...

The link in "The Week" encapsulates six takeaways from Santorum's win. Do you agree with any or all of them? http://theweek.com/article/index/224154/tuesdays-stunning-santorum-sweep-6-takeaways

Rick Santorum attended a rally for Mitt Romney in St. Louis in 2008. Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., threw his support this morning to Mitt Romney for president. Santorum’s endorsement was sought by all of the Republican candidates in the past year. “In a few short days, Republicans from across this country will decide more than their party’s nominee,” Santorum says in a statement released by the Romney campaign. “They will decide the very future of our party and the conservative coalition that Ronald Reagan built. Conservatives can no longer afford to stand on the sidelines in this election,...

Rick Santorum is about to see the kitchen sink up-close. So far he hasn’t been a threat, so he hasn’t faced much harsh scrutiny, much less the attacks that are about to come his way. His candidacy is for real, and Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney both know it. While Gingrich thought he could isolate Romney and become his lone real competitor, yesterday’s results, combined with a deflating Gingrich campaign, have allowed Santorum to leapfrog Gingrich as the more viable Romney alternative today. It’s not in Gingrich’s nature to give up. Attacking Romney hasn’t gotten him to where he thought...

Today, for the first time this cycle, multiple states hold their Republican presidential nomination contests on one day, two caucuses (Colorado and Minnesota) and one primary (Missouri). They all have two things in common. First, none of them are binding, so no delegates will be formally assigned from the vote. Second, they all represent Rick Santorum’s best shot at changing the trajectory of this race and positioning himself as the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. One final series of snap polls from PPP shows Santorum with a double-digit lead in Missouri, and nearly as much of a lead in Minnesota:...

Open for discussion.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: In these next two we have Trump. This was this morning on CNN's Early Start with Ashleigh Banfield. And they played a section or a portion of Santorum, I believe. Regardless, they were talking about Santorum and his victory speech last night. And this is what Trump had to say... TRUMP: Rick Santorum was a sitting Senator who in reelection lost by 19 points. To my knowledge, the most in the history of this country for sitting Senator to lose by 19 points. It's unheard of. Then he goes out and it says, "Oh, okay. I just...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Rick Santorum, one night, three victories. CBS has the story: "Santorum Stunner: Sweeps 3 GOP Contests." I've taken a gander throughout the Republican media, conservative media, and all over the place, and they are shocked. They're literally shocked. The Republican establishment had no idea this was percolating out there. I can't believe how insulated they are. I mean I know they're insulated. I know they're inside the Beltway. I know they have their own world in which they live, but to look at the reaction they're having today, to see how shocked they are that Rick Santorum...

Rush Limbaugh mocked the Republican establishment on his radio show Wednesday for being “shocked” by Rick Santorum’s three-state win, saying, “I can’t believe how insulated they are.” “They’re literally shocked. The Republican establishment had no idea this was percolating out there. I can’t believe how insulated they are,” Limbaugh said. “To look at the reaction they’re having today, to see how shocked they are that Rick Santorum has come out of what they thought was an impossible position equivalent to nowhere, is an incredible thing.” The “drive-bys” – a term that Limbaugh has coined for the media – have been...