I'll try, and this does not mean I necessarily agree with it 100% - but I think I know where they're going with this.
In this crazy world of 2012 politics, it seems like there is only one non-Romney at a time. And for some reason, it seems like the public gives that non-Romney a couple bites at the apple, and if they don't take him down, they reject him for another non-Romney.
Santorum was crushed by Newt in SC and Florida, but after Florida, said that "newt has had his chance" and "now it's my turn" to be the non Romney. Now of course that makes no sense when you consider that Santorum was "having his chance" in SC and Florida too.
But dammit - the public bought it - and Santorum, who was crushed by Newt in SC and Florida - was nonetheless "given his chance" to be the non Romney. Thus with his epic fail in Michigan just days after having a big lead, the thinking is - now it's Newt's turn again.
I'm not sure it will work or not, but I think that's the translation.
Wall Street Billionaires and Michigan Workers;
By Jay Nordlinger
February 28, 2012 4:07 P.M. Comments
46In his robocall to Michigan voters, Rick Santorum is saying, “Romney supported the bailout for his Wall Street billionaire buddies, but opposed the auto bailout. That was a slap in the face to every Michigan worker.”
For almost 60 years now, National Review has worked against this kind of crudity — crudity of thought and crudity of expression. And this is our guy? Santorum is the conservatives’ guy?
Many conservatives supported the bank bailout and opposed the auto bailout. You can look up arguments within NR editorials. Conservatives all over the country, in all sorts of forums, made arguments for and against — for and against either bailout. Those arguments continue now, retrospectively.
But is there any thinking or respectable conservative who uses Rick Santorum’s language — the bank bailout was for Mitt Romney’s “Wall Street billionaire buddies” while Michigan workers got their faces slapped? (Santorum opposed the auto bailout, too. Was he slapping workers’ faces?)
Ladies and gentlemen, this isn’t conservatism. It’s more like street-corner Marxism. What a strange and tragic pass we’ve reached.”
Santorum wasn’t competing in Florida, so to claim that Santorum was “crushed” by Newt in Florida, you also have to acknowledge that Gingrich was just crushed by Santorum in 5 straight races, including Michigan.
Plus, Michigan is only seen as a collapsing failure because PPP, a democratic outfit, through up a poll that said Santorum was leading by 15% in Michigan, when their previous poll and subsequent poll both showed much different results.
If not for that “Santorum is way ahead” meme pushed by PPP and I think one other poll, we’d have seen Michigan for what it was, a close race where Romney had great advantages, including a LOT of early voting, and where Santorum managed to come within 5%, and to take about half the delegates, essentially splitting the state.
Gingrich of course already had 2 bites at the apple, collapsing in December and again after South Carolina.
And in an interesting twist, in the states where GIngrich came in 2nd, the combined Gingrich/Santorum vote never seems to have beaten the Romney vote. Whereas, in the states where Santorum came in 2nd, the only state where their combined total didn’t beat Romney was Arizona. And neither Santorum nor Gingrich were really competing in Arizona. So, in addition to Newt beating Romney 1 time, and Rick beating Romney 4 times, in Michigan Newt/Santorum beat Romney.
Three states where Newt beat Rick but didn’t win:
New Hampshire: Romney 97K, Newt/Rick 47K
Florida: Romney 775K, Newt/Rick 756K
Nevada: Romney 16K, Newt/Rick 10K
Two states where Rick beat Newt but didn’t win:
Michigan: Romney 411K, Rick/Newt: 443K
Arizona: Romney 217K, Rick/Newt: 196K
And the only state where Romney broke 50% was a state where Newt came in 2nd place.
Of course, the “electorate” isn’t doing analysis. They will move partly based on what the news media says this week. But I doubt the news media is going to play the “Newt Resurgence” story again. And if they don’t, it will be interesting to see if Newt has enough money to get that message out himself.
So far, he seems to be concentrating on 2 states, one of which he was always expected to win (his home state, Georgia), and another (Tennessee) where if he didn’t win, Santorum would win, so his efforts aren’t doing anything to stop Romney.
8-9 of the total points won by Santorum last night in Michigan were democrat voters.
Absent democrats Santorum would have lost by more than 10 points.
Gingrich has shown to be the only Republican that can beat Romney in a PRIMARY that has real delegates at stake. One where the candidates are "all in".
Sadly, I think it’s over. The fact Romney was the underdog and was able to get these 2 states seals the deal for him.