Posted on 03/21/2012 5:05:40 PM PDT by Steelfish
Poll: Santorum Ahead In Louisiana By Jonathan Easley - 03/21/12
Rick Santorum leads the GOP presidential field by double digits heading into Saturdays primary in Louisiana, according to a poll released late Tuesday by Magellan Strategies.
Santorum took 37 percent, followed by Mitt Romney at 24 percent, Newt Gingrich at 21 percent and Ron Paul at 3 percent.
The poll was conducted on March 19, before Romneys convincing victory in the Illinois primary, and has a 2 percent margin of error.
Gingrich finished a distant fourth in Illinois, and will likely hear growing calls this week for him to end his campaign. One recent Gallup poll found that Gingrich supporters were split evenly between Romney and Santorum for their second choices, but the Magellan poll shows that the former House Speakers ongoing candidacy is hurting Santorum, at least in the South.
In a two-man race, Santorum leads Romney by 21 percent in Louisiana, with 61 percent of Gingrichs support going to Santorum, and only 22 percent going to Romney.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
What would Newt’s lead be without Rick?
FReepmail Antoninus to be added or removed.
So does anyone know why despite the “growing calls this week for him to end his campaign” Gingrich continues to stay in the race and enables Romney to narrow the gap with Santorum and sometimes actually thwart Santorum’s success like what occurred in crucial MI where Romney won by 3% points and Gingrich took just 7% of the vote or in all-important OH where Santorum lost by under 1% and Gingrich siphoned off 14.5% of the vote? Sometimes there is a message in the madness, but hard as one may look a sliver of a rational basis for this cannot be unearthed.
And, I want this internecine, conservative-vote-split thing settled for GOOD down in Louisiana.
New battle cry:
"CLEAR THE FIELD! ONE RINO. ONE PATRIOT. GAME ON."
November? Etch-a-Sketch vs. Teleprompter?? NO WAY. NO HOW.
Without Gaffe Rick, Newt would be winning LA.
Without Rick, Romney’s vote tally would be doubled and more. Remember Gingrich has such extraordinarily high negatives that no matter what he’s simply unelectable. 60% negatives among women! Not a snowball in hell’s chance.
It disappoints me to no end that 24% of my fellow Louisianans would vote for Mitt Romney in a primary.
4 Videos of Santorum In His Own Words Defending Big (and Intrusive) Governemnt: http://t.co/L31JMzmz
Yet even with Rick ahead Sat. O’Reilly and friends are picking Romney’s VP. I get more pissed off by the minute with these thugs.
Newts on the ballot. He should be ahead of Santorum, right?
Does everyone else have to get out so that there is no one left but Newt and people are left with no choice but Newt? People are onto Newt. LOL That would be nice for Newt, but if people wanted Newt, he would lead Santorum, right? I bet you wouldn’t be upset about that.
Except, people can choose Newt over Rick right now, but they don’t.
Why is that? I mean, their roles could be reversed. Rick could be behind Newt by 13% points. But he isn’t.
Are you Rick Santorum’s brother or something. You seem to take everything so personal.
Just check this out below and then we must ask in what planet are the Newtheads still living? He scores an unbelievable 60% negative with women and a frightening 23% negative with men. No small wonder that he often keeps finishing dead last but in the process has enabled Romney to clinch the primary contest.
I am sick of Rick and Newt's delusional escapades..
Every day they stay in it, the more it hurts our chances to take out the marxist in the white house
The problem is, he is screwing up Santorum in the process as collateral damage with this vote-split thing; the majority of commentators I have read see it as well. Only there is a strain, a minority viewpoint that somehow extrapolates his staying in actually keeps Romney from winning, but I think that is just glorified rationalizing with unsustainable arguments and numbers. What is sad about this windmill tilting is, as I expressed yesterday, the admirable, tough fighter Mr. Gingrich is not even eligible yet to have his name placed in GOP nomination at the Tampa convention per Rule 40 (b) at this time. Why would he have his delegates go there, often on their own dime nowadays, airfare, high gas prices to drive down from Georgia or South Carolina or elsewhere to Florida, hotel, food, pay for various parties, etc., but to sit on the convention floor and not be able to cast a valid vote for Gingrich during the roll call of the states. How could he do that do these people and distrupt their lives? For what greater cause?
It is unfathomable, but I guess some people will not let go of the Golden Ring they think they have in their hand, the Presidency, when they have wanted that for so long. Reading the tea leaves cannot be made in a direct appeal to the Speaker I am afraid. It needs to be made directly to his funders, and endorsers, people like Perry and Cain and Palin need to be contacted by the Conservative base to get with the program and get behind one single conservative left to deny Romney the nomination. Allen West should endorse, too, he fence sat this whole thing through and I must say I lost some respect of him as a result. I could live with who he endorsed but to just sit it out and by lack of action perhaps contribute to a Romney Nomination is just unfathomable in my section of Tea Party Land that I occupy. Now we see all RINO-dom in their sycophantic glory (Jeb Bush, etc) starting to pile on for Romney to create the Establishment's chain reaction of "inevitability" from the top down ("You Conservatives in the "Base" will do as we say, now, vote for us, get in the back seat, and SHUT UP.")
This must be stopped, and through a united front behind Santorum, it can be. But time is running out.
LOL
Actually, I was Gingrich’s brother up to the point he got crushed in Florida and Santorum went on to win the trifecta. So you could say that Newt and Rick share a parent as well.
My guess - Newt knows he's done but his ego wants the opportunity for a broadway-esque fall on your sword moment at the convention. If, against all odds, he can pull enough delegates from Romney to keep Romney from the magic number (even though that's a statistical long shot) he can go into the convention, and ask his delegates to give his votes to Santorum.
National stage, falls on sword, hero of the conservatives, blah, blah, blah. Newt doesn't have a chance to hit the delegate total, he will end behind Santorum, who will end behind Romney. Only question is whether Romney hits the magic number. And with Newt in the race, the answer will be yes.
Newt is smart, unfortunately his ego seems to get in the way of common sense a little too often...
The terminally self-righteous do that.
Oh Good Lord. You are starting in on this in FR way too early. Romneybots are supposed to come out in late April on this forum.
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