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 ...
The state-run news media labeling things like “stunner” reveals their complete ignorance of the middle part of the country. Watching selected foxnews personalities try to process their way through the fact that Romney didn’t win a huge victory in any of the states is telling. They don’t even begin to comprehend how out of touch they are with a large part of the country.
Time for
Ann Coulter to abandon Mitt Flipper Romney.
Maybe, maybe not. From a purely electoral perspective, Santorum, Gingrich, Romney, and Paul all have their strengths and weaknesses, and none is the ideal 'electability' candidate.
Santorum's electoral strengths lie in his blue collar appeal and connection with voters in the Midwest/Great Lakes, the key battleground region.
Whether one is rooting for Santorum, Newt, or a brokered convention, yesterday's result was a great thing.
I’m really hoping this whole “style over substance” problem we have in America will start to turn around.
We have a used car salesman in the White House - and an incompetent one at that.
Looking for charisma, flash, and bling has gotten this country into alot of trouble.
This calls for a little celebration!
You keep repeating this lie. Santorum isn't going to take away your condoms, which is apparently what you care about most in the world.
Are you sure you're a conservative?
And now the story about these donations from the mexican family is coming out....it’s starting to look like the O team knowingly was accepting drug money.
O might wind up taking himself right out of the picture.
How nice it would be to have a real conservative set up for the victory.
Santorum’s speech that day may be the best speech I have ever heard live.....I still remember it today....the energy in the room was indescribable.
....everyone walked out thinking he will be president someday or ‘I really hope he is president someday’
(( 1998 was before Santorum spent much time in the horribly corrupting place we call the U.S. Senate which has a tendency to dirty even the best people (Yes, supporting Spector was a really bad decision ))
U.S. Senator Rick Santorum delivered this commencement address to the Grove City College graduating Class of 1998:
http://www.visionandvalues.org/1998/05/vision-a-values-goodness-and-greatness/
I love it when the vote goes THIS way ...ALL the amazing huge majority votes going to a conservative. If we could keep this up ...i’d vote for either one, although I’m extremely in the tank for Newt. Extremely.
I don’t feel Santorum stacks up to Newt — intellectually or vision wise ...those are very important things to me. Newt was Santorum’s role model — dont’ forget that. Newt is the original ...
However, it was DELICIOUS to see that mormon car salesman put back in his place. Perhaps he will take all of his millions now and go back to stiffing average Americans out of jobs in his big “business deals.”
He cannot even get votes in the primaries, and is consistently trailing behind even Ron Paul.
Society clearly backs Romney, Santorum and even Ron Paul in the effort to defeat Obama in November.
Gingrich is becoming more of an obscure nuisance with each passing day.
Maine will go to (in no particular order) Romney, Santorum and Paul. Gingrich won't even place there either.
I live in the Philly burbs. Santorum broke my heart when he endorsed Specter over Toomey. I'm one of the reasons Rick couldn't get reelected. I voted for him, but I just couldn't support him again with my time or money, not even a lawn sign.
The way I see it now, either Newt or Rick is better than Romney. Right now is not the time for their supporters to turn their guns on each other. I'll vote for either one of them in the PA primary, but I will not vote for Romney. Ever. Neither Rick nor Newt is my ideal candidate, but we don't have an ideal candidate.
Bingo!
I hardly think so.
Gingrich hasn't won ANYTHING in comparison to Santorum, and crazy Ron Paul is consistently placing ahead of Gingrich.
BTW, Gingrich will only continue to come in 4th place behind the Santorum, Romney and Paul race.
He is basically a menace at this point in the race.
Mucho religious voters in all three states helped immensely, as did the timing of Obama’s mandate for Catholic orgs to provide abortifacient drugs. Those voters KNOW that the milquetoast Mormon is not the guy to fight such attacks on religious liberties. Santorum gave an impassioned speech on that last night, going far beyond the usual talking points, and hammering Obama on his 1st Amend attack. Well played!
I live in Alabama. I have not heard ONE PERSON, NOT ONE PERSON say they like Romney and are going to vote for him. We true Bible believing Christians KNOW the difference between true Christians and Romney's Mormon style of believing in Christ. We don't believe that Jesus Christ and Satan were BROTHERS!!! The Mormons do. There are tons more differences also. We are not voting for him or his false religion.
Santorum's electoral strength is in the Great Lakes/Midwest, where for better or worse it's still the 1950's (so to speak) in many ways.
Santorum beats Obama by winning Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, plus the GOP base in the Great Plains and most of the South. He loses NH, NV, CO, NM, VA, and FL but triumphs 276 to 262. Or maybe he wins FL but loses one of the industrial states, or something similar - maybe his VP can carry VA or FL or NM for the ticket.
It's not an easy task but it's possible, and it's a clearer path to victory than those of the other candidates.
Not in VA—Only Mittens and RP are on the VA ballot.
Unless things have changed.
And Newt will be there in MO for the vote that counts.
But this thread is for Rick, and hats off to him.
Anybody but Romney.
He is NOT on the ballot in VA.
He didn’t even try to get on it.
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