Posted on 03/01/2012 5:18:23 AM PST by VU4G10
Rick Santorum put a lot of chips on Michigan, and he lost. Now the question is whether his chance to prove he is a viable alternative to Mitt Romney has slipped away for good.
Santorum’s loss has raised new questions about his tactics in Michigan in particular, and his vulnerabilities as a candidate more generally.
His team’s decision to make robocalls to registered Democrats asking them to turn out for him on primary day was as divisive as it was ineffective. The tactic left an unpleasant taste in the mouths of many conservatives.
Describing the move as “ill-considered,” Florida Republican strategist Rick Wilson added that many conservatives were “turned off by the whole thing.”
The Romney campaign has continued to try to make hay from the controversy. Wednesday afternoon, his aides organized a conference call in which high-profile surrogates called on Santorum to “stop teaming up with Democrats.”
Wilson and others also point to the number of controversies revolving around social issues in which Santorum became entangled.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Santorum is a typical Republican.
He struggles to turn Victory into Defeat.
He doesn’t know when to shut up.
I’m thinking that any votes lost by Santorum won’t be going to Romney.
These were the tactics used by specter in PA. We all know what that led to.
So taking the same number of delegates from Michigan as Romney is a loss?
Frankly I’m saddened by how willing some FReepers are to play the media game for them.
Exactly what I was going to say. Rick won more delegates than Romney. End of story. We’ll see how Super Tuesday looks, too.
I'm thinking the exact same sentence can be written for Gingrich: "Newt Gingrich put a lot of chips on Florida, and he lost. Now the question is whether his chance to prove he is a viable alternative to Mitt Romney has slipped away for good."
After all, since Gingrich lost Florida, he has lost 5 more races, and except for one where he came in 2nd, has been a complete non-factor.
But clearly the pro-Newt folks believe he can come back, and in fact are certain of it. Which means they should realize that the Santorum folks probably believe exactly the same thing. And the rest of us are just hoping ONE of the two can come back and win, and that they don't spend the rest of their time and money just attacking each other.
Reagan reached out to dems in 1980. Trying to figure why Santorum doing essentially the same thing is a foul.
BS. It was a very weak victory and he split the delegates with Santorum.
It cracked me up to see Rick Snyder out there complaining about the “dirty tricks” of Santorum since he is only Governor due to democrat crossovers who voted for him in nearly identical numbers as voted for democrat Bernero.
In fact in the interview, Snyder said he wants the primaries to remain open. Now why would he say that if it just leads to crossover voters?
The Romney supporting GOP establishment in Michigan had their chance to close the primary but didn’t. Santorum simply outplayed them at their own game.
Mich. Delegates= 30
Santorum won 17
Romney won 13
The way I see it Romney WON the popular vote, but what they are vying for is DELEGATES! Don’t be led by the media!
Well, at his peak on February 19th, Gallup tracking had Santorum at 36, Romney at 26, and Newt at 13.
Today’s release (Feb 28 final date) has Romney at 33 (+7), Santorum at 25 (-11), Gingrich at 16 (+3).
So it appears that Romney gets over twice as many “lost Santorum votes” as Gingrich gets.
Which meshes with what we see in most preference polls, and mirrors what we see in states where Gingrich came in 2nd, vs states where Santorum comes in 2nd. Namely, if Santorum is in 2nd, the combined Santorum/Gingrich vote is better than when Gingrich comes in 2nd. In fact, there are NO cases yet where Gingrich beat Santorum but came in 2nd and the combined Gingrich/Santorum vote beats Romney. Whereas in Michigan, even though GIngrich only got 6%, if you combine him with Santorum they beat Romney easily. (Arizona the two of them lost to Romney, but kept him below 50%: in Nevada, when Gingrich came in 2nd, Romney was over 50% total).
One explanation for that is that, in fact, Santorum votes tend to split evenly or more toward Romney, so if Santorum is pushed down, Romney goes up by more than Gingrich, and (as in Florida, Nevada, and New Hampshire) the total Newt/Rick vote loses to Romney.
But if Santorum is in 2nd, as in Michigan, the combined vote of Rick/Newt is higher, because Newt’s voters tend to move to Santorum.
I don’t know why. I just know that it seems to be holding true, and that this makes it harder for Gingrich to win, because pushing Santorum out tends to help Romney at least as much as Newt.
Maybe that will change going forward.
The robocalls were beyond stupid.
Not only were they bad tactics, they totally blew away any claim he had to the moral high ground. And that, deserved or not, was practically the only real advantage he had over Romney.
It’s gone now.
I am in utter awe at how gracefully he blew his own foot right off at the ankle.
I’m starting to think we might indeed lose to Obama because I am still convinced that the Dems have all the ammo they need to take out both Mitt and Newt.
So hey RIck! Thank you very much for the double-face-palm, beat my-head-against-the-wall, screaming-to-scare-the-cat temper tantrum earlier today.
Clears the sinuses....
You truly do have a double standard that you are not able to see in yourself. You just proved that by justifying who and what Santorum is (Or what you say he is) when Santorum makes these kind of fatal errors.
Well, sorry, it's not working.
In fact, why does no one notice that Romney won the most liberal areas of Michigan, and santorum won the rest.
Have you seen in info how much the democrat cross over helped Santorum in these areas where he won? I’ve read that upwards of 9% were democrats but obviously they didn’t all vote for Santorum. There maybe more speculation about the crossover than actual data.
The robocalls were beyond stupid.
Not only were they bad tactics, they totally blew away any claim he had to the moral high ground. And that, deserved or not, was practically the only real advantage he had over Romney.
It’s gone now.
I am in utter awe at how gracefully he blew his own foot right off at the ankle.
I’m starting to think we might indeed lose to Obama because I am still convinced that the Dems have all the ammo they need to take out both Mitt and Newt.
So hey RIck! Thank you very much for the double-face-palm, beat my-head-against-the-wall, screaming-to-scare-the-cat temper tantrum earlier today.
Clears the sinuses....
You have spoken a most accurate and profound truth!
well... I will at least feel better knowing that Romney will forever have his name linked to the long list of Republican losers, after he loses to Obama.
I am about to tune out totally.
It’s a shame, I really liked Gingrich, but I guess people just can’t get past his past :/
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