Super Tuesday results leave Romney a weakened Republican frontrunner

A little more than four years ago, after winning only three of 17 Super Tuesday states in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney reassessed his campaign and decided the time had come to call it quits.

Super Tuesday 2012 has come and gone, and while he won’t be bowing out anytime soon, Romney is faced with a new dilemma this time around: how to shake his four remaining challengers and secure the GOP presidential nomination for the right to oppose President Barack Obama in the November election.

Romney and his top rival for the nomination, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, each won their share of states and delegates Tuesday, and they had to wait until Tuesday became Wednesday to learn that Romney had barely edged Santorum in Ohio. Romney also prevailed in his home state of Massachusetts, neighboring Vermont, Mormon-heavy Idaho and in a one-on-one matchup against Texas Rep. Ron Paul in Virginia, where Santorum and former Speaker Newt Gingrich failed to qualify for the ballot.

For his part, Santorum prevailed in Tennessee, Oklahoma and North Dakota, while Gingrich won a decisive victory in Georgia. Results from the Alaska caucuses, where former half-term governor and failed 2008 vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin cast her vote for Gingrich, will be known early Wednesday.

Even with his narrow win in Ohio, Romney failed to deliver the so-called “knockout blow” his supporters were hoping for. With Santorum winning three states and battling Romney tooth-and-nail in Ohio, the Romney campaign has to be assessing the road ahead and asking if there is, in fact, a path to a first-ballot nomination. The answer, it would seem, rests not with the Romney campaign but on whether his rivals bow out sooner rather than later.

Ironically, perhaps the best indication of Romney’s weakness as a potential nominee came in Virginia, a state he won. The state has a somewhat complicated ballot qualification process, and Romney and Paul were the only choices presented to voters in the state’s open primary. Polls leading up to election showed Romney with nearly 70 percent support and Paul under 30 percent, but that’s not how the final total shook out. Romney won, but Paul garnered his highest vote totals of any state thus car. The latest returns showed Romney with about 60 percent to Paul’s 40 percent.

Former Bill Clinton adviser and Fox News analyst Dick Morris presents a fairly compelling mathematical case that neither Santorum, Gingrich or Paul will get enough delegates from here until the GOP convention in late August to beat Romney on the first ballot, so they should all drop out and let Romney coast his way to the nomination. This, Morris argues, is the only way the GOP will have a chance to beat Obama. He figures that six more months of Republican candidates beating each other up cannot help the party’s chances this fall.

But Morris, for all his political experience, overlooks two very important points, both clearly discernible in the Virginia results: One, that for whatever reason or reasons, Romney is a flawed candidate; and two, that Paul’s message of individual liberty and adherence to the Constitution is one that Paul voters won’t find in Romney.

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, a Republican turned Libertarian who will likely be the LP presidential nominee and appear on the ballot in all 50 states, has to be encouraged by the Virginia results because it proves that four out of 10 Republicans, when faced with a choice between Romney and one other candidate, could not bring themselves to vote for the man who still has to be considered the Republican frontrunner, albeit a weak one. Romney can’t seal the deal for one simple reason – he simply doesn’t appeal to enough elements of the party to unite it.

With a fairly light primary and caucus schedule remaining for March, and three of those contests to be held in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana – all states that Gingrich could win – Romney’s best hope for a meaningful win later in the month is Illinois. Santorum won the “beauty contest” in Missouri earlier this year, and he may well win the caucuses scheduled for March 17. He should also fare well in Kansas. Hawaii, Guam and Puerto Rico also hold nominating contests this month, so by the time all is said and done, Santorum and Gingrich could combine to easily exceed Romney’s total for states won in March.

Four years ago, it was all over for Romney by March. This time, he had hoped to seal the deal on Super Tuesday. Instead, he finds himself slugging it out with three candidates representing at least two very different wings of the Republican Party. If he can’t find a way to bridge those gaps in support soon, he may well lack the enthusiastic base needed to defeat Obama even if he does eventually win the Republican nomination.

Ineligible RINO Backstabber:
"Thank me. When I cheat, I win."

FLASHBACK:

The McCain/Palin ticket was up ++4 to 10 pts
in some polls, days prior to Election 2008.
So rather than helping the GOP, Romney and
TeamROMNEY and the RNME (Republican National Media Establishment)
decided …to attack Gov. Palin to throw Election2008.

Romney, and the Van der Sloot RNME RINOs for Obama in 2008

Late in October, The American Spectator's The Prowler revealed:
"Former Mitt Romney presidential campaign staffers…
have been involved in spreading anti-Palin spin to reporters, seeking to diminish her standing after the election.
'Sarah Palin is a lightweight, she won't be the first, not even the third, person people will think of when it comes to 2012,'
says one former Romney aide…
'The only serious candidate ready to challenge to lead the Republican Party is Mitt Romney.
"Some former Romney aides were behind the recent leaks to media, including CNN, that Governor Sarah Palin was a 'diva' and was going off message intentionally."

The Palmetto Scoop reported: "One of the first stories to hit the national airwaves was
the claim of a major internal strife between close McCain aides and the folks handling his running mate Sarah Palin."
"I’m told by very good sources that this was indeed the case and that a rift had developed, but it was between Palin’s people and the staffers brought on from the failed presidential campaign of former Gov. Mitt Romney, not McCain aides."
"The sources said nearly 80 percent of Romney’s former staff was absorbed by McCain and these individuals were responsible for what amounts to a premeditated, last-minute sabotage of Palin."
… aides loyal to Romney inside the McCain campaign, said The Scoop, reportedly saw
that Palin would be a serious contender for the Republican nomination in 2012 or 2016, which made her a threat to another presidential quest by Romney.

"These staffers are now out trying to finish her off ….hoping it would ingratiate themselves with Mitt Romney."

"Who's the Palin Leaker from the McCain Campaign?
National Review Online The publication of a Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin
appears to have opened old wounds in the McCain campaign.
... the source of the “Diva” leak was Nicolle Wallace’s husband."

"Peeking Out From the McCain Wreckage: Mitt Romney"

"Someone's got to say it: IS MITT ROMNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBAMA'S VICTORY?"

"Vanity: Team Romney Sabotaged Palin and Continuing to Do So?"

"Romney Supporters Trashing Palin"

"Romney advisors sniping at Palin?"

Ansel, you've got a valid point. Santorum made a mistake supporting Specter in the 1996 presidential race.

You're citing one item out of a list of problem statements that has been posted on a number of places on Free Republic, and seems to be coming from a list posted on Ron Paul's website, which has posted a video of Arlen Specter's 1995 speech here: http://www.ronpaul2012.com/2012/03/02/santorum-with-specter-in-1996-to-protect-a-womans-right-to-choose/

I listened to all of Specter's speech — nearly a half-hour of it. His speech outlined a platform focused on a flat tax, his role as a Philadelphia prosecutor in reducing violent crime and an emphasis on no plea bargains for career criminals, an aggressive military posture, forcing North Korea to allow nuclear weapons inspections, fighting terrorism, moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, cutting federal expenses, and paying off the national debt. He focused on the value of education, noting that his father had no formal education and his mother had to drop out of school after eighth grade.

I think many of us would say those are good things.

Unfortunately, Specter also cited Goldwater's belief that the government should stay out of people's bedrooms and opposed what he called a “radical social agenda” of opposition to abortion and promotion of school prayer. He opposed Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, and Ralph Reed, citing them by name: “We do not need holy wars; what we need is tolerance, brotherhood, and simple humanity.” He said “I and millions of other pro-choice Republicans will not be disenfranchised and made second-class citizens,” but also emphasized the value of people “with deep religious and moral convictions” while opposing “bringing God into politics.”

Specter quoted Jack Kemp saying “when it comes to moral values, we should seek to persuade rather than impose,” and said moral issues such as abortion should be left to the conscience of the individual.

Quoting Specter again: “Let me say it as plainly as I can: Neither this nation nor this party can afford a candidate so captive to the demands of the intolerant right that we end up re-electing a president of the incompetent left.”

It seems obvious that Arlen Specter's views are a major problem.

It also seems to me that most of us already knew that Santorum has a history of defending Specter. I don't like that.

Now if someone can show me that Santorum actually agrees with some of these horrible views advocated by Specter nearly two decades ago, I'll be a lot more concerned. This list of views attacking a Christian role in politics sounds much more like what is being said by some supporters of other candidates here on Free Republic, not like something Santorum believes today.

What follows is from Ron Paul's website, hut as far as I can tell it's accurately quoting Specter's speech:

_____

Here are a few key takeaways from the 25 minute C-SPAN video, with Santorum seen nodding and applauding at Specter’s side:

3:46 mark: “In 1996, I intend to win the other house — the White House — with ten commitments to America… including a woman’s right to choose…

13:22 mark: “Even though we have this historic opportunity for these achievements, there are those in our party who would lead us down a different path — and squander this unique moment in our nation’s history — by using our political capital — to pursue a radical social agenda — that would end a woman’s right to choose…

13:48 mark: “When Pat Robertson says there is no constitutional doctrine of separation between Church and State, I say he is wrong…

14:31 mark: “When Ralph Reed says a pro-choice Republican isn’t qualified to be our President, I say the Republican Party will not be intimidated or blackmailed by those kinds of threats.I, and millions of other pro-choice Republicans, will not be disenfranchised and made second class citizens.

15:33 mark: “… it is not Christian, or religious, or Judeo-Christian to bring God into politics; or to advocate intolerance and promote exclusion.

15:54 mark: “I want to take abortion out of politics. I want to keep the Republican Party focused on the vital economic and foreign policy issues — and leave moral issues such as abortion to the conscience of the individual. I believe abortion is an issue to be decided by women…

16:40 mark: “I pledge to lead the fight to strip the strident anti-choice language from the Republican National platform…”

_________

12 posted on Wednesday, March 07, 2012 1:31:22 AM by ansel12 (Santorum-Catholic and “I was basically pro-choice all my life, until I ran for Congress” he said))

Would you endorse a Presidential candidate, running on this platform?
Santorum did.

“I pledge to lead the fight to strip the strident anti-choice language from the Republican National platform…”

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