Tennessee shows relevance, keeps GOP nomination muddied

Knoxville News Sentinel ^ | 3/8/12 | Michael Collins

[SmithL]

WASHINGTON — If not for Tennessee, the slugfest for the GOP presidential nomination might already be over.

Rick Santorum's solid victory over Mitt Romney in Tennessee in the Super Tuesday presidential primary enables the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania to stay in the race and all but guarantees that the bloody battle for the GOP nomination will drag on for weeks.

"That's the most important take-away here: The race will continue, and Tennessee had something to do with that — for better or worse," said Anthony Nownes, a political scientist at the University of Tennessee.

Romney walked away with the most wins in the Super Tuesday elections. . . .

[Joe the Pimpernel]

All we have to do is keep Myth below 48% of the remaining vote.

If that happens, the GOPe will have already been defeated. It will just be a matter of making official from that point on.

[Ingtar]

Not quite. There are a number of winner take all states coming up. He can get all the delegates while below 48%. We need to keep him from getting 40% of the remaining delegates. The “free” ones will glom onto him.

[Optimus Maximus]

Tennessee would've mattered MORE if they had gone for Newt. Amazes me that more voters can not see through the GOPe’s desperation to keep Newt out, because they know they can't control him. Will little effort, most voters should be able to see that Newt means real Tea Party-ish change, that he has the most well-thought-out plans, ready to go once elected, to get the economy back on track, reduce energy costs, reduce government waste, and begin to turn us back to constitutionally limited government. Is this scary to voters? If it is, we are lost as a nation. Please wake up and pay attention, voters! Newt needs AL, MS, and Kan next week. I have high hopes for AL & MS. Kan, not so much... Root for Newt is the correct call!