Posted on 02/07/2012 10:36:59 PM PST by Steelfish
Santorum Delivers a GOP Stunner Former Senator Wins in Minnesota, Missouri; Romney Campaign Plays Down Nonbinding Contests
By NEIL KING JR. And DANNY YADRON
DENVER—Rick Santorum jolted the Republican presidential race Tuesday by winning nominating contests in Missouri and Minnesota, puncturing Mitt Romney's claim to be the unstoppable front-runner.
Mr. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, was running neck and neck with Mr. Romney in preliminary returns from Colorado, a state Mr. Romney won by a wide margin in 2008.
With about 70% of the Colorado vote counted, Mr. Santorum had 38%, to 36% for Mr. Romney. Four years ago, Mr. Romney carried Colorado with 60% of the vote.
Mr. Santorum's twin victories in the Midwest will give his campaign a much-needed burst of momentum and may stir doubt about Mr. Romney's abilities to woo conservatives to his side in important electoral states such as Missouri. So far, Mr. Romney has won in states where he has devoted significant campaign time and advertising dollars.
Mr. Santorum won 55% of the Missouri vote, while Mr. Romney followed with 25%. Texas Rep. Ron Paul was trailing with 12%. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich wasn't on the Missouri ballot.
Mr. Santorum's Missouri victory margin of almost 75,000 votes over Mr. Romney was nearly 29,000 more than Mr. Romney's combined Iowa and Nevada total.
While the Tuesday results didn't directly award any of the delegates needed to claim the GOP nomination, they showed voters rejecting Mr. Romney even in states where he had performed well four years ago.
Mr. Romney had carried Minnesota in 2008 but placed third there on Tuesday. With 85% of precincts in, Mr. Santorum had 45% of the vote, while Mr. Paul had 27%. Mr. Romney had 17% of the vote and Mr. Gingrich claimed 11%.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
This is wonderful. Back in 2008, we would have been thrilled if Romney could be our anti-McStain. Now we have a chance for someone more conservative than Romney. Haha!
I am glad that Newt had his time in the sun. He comes up with great ideas sometimes and deserves respect.
As for Santorum, people [who matter] have nothing but good things to say about him so far as I know.
Exactly, yet another shot across the RNC Establishment’s bow.
Time for Romney to drop out of the race and endorse Ron Paul so there can be a united effort to defeat Santorum...
Just trying to be consistent, here...
“The birth control issue was beyond stupid by 0.”
That also makes clear how much better it would be to have a CONSERVATIVE candidate other than Romney.
Oh My.....
Looks like a Tebow Moment! :-)
LOL
The conservatives are running against Romney instead of Obama. We will get our just desserts in November.
You're a fake.
I don’t like Santorum at all; he is all big government, establishment GOP and has a rather disagreeable Jimmy Carter type personality, without the smile.
However, I’m really glad that Romney got knocked back, even though two of caucuses were not binding and Gingrich wasn’t even in one of them.
Maybe the GOP will have to rethink the inevitability of Romney, who is a truly odious person and should be nowhere near the Presidency. We’ve already had a few years of one odious person and we don’t need another.
If the GOP hadn’t been pushing Romney from the start, he would never have gotten as far as he has, because he really has nothing to offer.
Try reading it at 3:16 and it will make sense.
Please explain to me how Santorum can defeat Obama. It's not 1950 anymore (unfortunately). The halftime show at the Super Bowl tells you all you need to know about where the average voting boob is at.
Really - I can't accept Mitt, it is unlikely that Newt can make it in the long haul, and I just cannot see a Rick Santorum path to victory.
I'm prepared to believe, if you can convince me.
How about this ticket, Bigbob:
Santorum - pres - appoints judiciary
Gingrich - vp - Senator would love Gingrich presiding there
Romney - car czar - only czar position not eliminated and Romney applies all the knowledge he gained at Bain Capital of how to save failing companies to the auto industry.
I would be happy if Rick and Newt came to an agreement that they would ally against Mitt, with whichever had the lower delegate count at the convention tossing his delegates to the higher candidate in exchange for becoming the VP on the ticket.
How many times, and how many ways, do we need to tell Karl Rove to screw off?
My theory is that the American public is SICK TO DEATH of the media and party elites deciding who our candidate will be and forcing him upon us and aren’t going to take it anymore!
I’m STILL scratching my head over how we ended up with John McCain in 2008!!!
When and under what circumstances did Aldo Santorum naturalize?
Gingrich-Santorum or Santorum-Gingrich.
You are right. I had overlooked that.
It actually has a huge border with Utah, doesn't it?
Wow! Romney is absolutely weak in his own back yard. Amazing
The path to victory in a general election isn't really that complicated. The seldom publicized truth (and this according to polls) is that most of the Country consider themselves Conservative. Rather than worrying about the Independents, a Republican nominee should focus on turning out their own base. This strategy is the key to success.
Romney doesn't excite the base. Sorry to say, Gingrich doesn't appear to excite enough of the base either. While all three candidates can draw the anti-Obama vote to different degrees (the lesser of two evils argument), it appears that Santorum, through his message, also is conveying that he is a true Conservative representative, giving Conservatives something to vote for, not just an alternative vote to Obama.
To those of us who believe in the ideology, last night was a great night and might be the real beginning of something very good.
Santorum’s biggest draw back has been the perception that he isn't electable. Last night likely changed that.
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