Posted on 03/13/2012 8:08:17 PM PDT by Steelfish
Santorum Wins Mississippi and Alabama Primaries
By Michael O'Brien, msnbc.com -- Rick Santorum scored victories in the Mississippi and Alabama primaries on Tuesday, depriving Mitt Romney of a signature win in a conservative stronghold and raising fresh doubts about the viability of Newt Gingrich's campaign.
The former Pennsylvania senator made his case for being the lone, serious Republican challenger to Romney for the remainder of the primary by besting Gingrich in states the former speaker's campaign had previously said were essential to its long-term viability.
“We did it again,” Santorum said to wild applause from supporters in Louisiana, and amid projections by NBC News that he would win both Mississippi and Alabama.
Romney had hoped to score a victory in Mississippi, thereby proving his ability to win a state that composes part of the heart of the modern GOP. But he appeared to be heading to a third-place finish in both contests, failing to even surpass Gingrich, a candidate who’s weathered growing calls to exit the race.
A former governor of Massachusetts, Romney acknowledged these contests were an “away game” for a figure like him, marking an effort to set low expectations for how he might finish in the contests.
John David Mercer / AP Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney greets supporters who braved the rain during a campaign stop at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Monday, March 12, 2012 in Mobile, Ala.
The Romney campaign was able to pick up delegates in both states, contributing to its march to collect the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination. His campaign was also likely to pick up those crucial delegates in Hawaii's caucuses, which were set to take place overnight. A total of 107 delegates were up for grabs between the three states on Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com ...
Hopefully, the N-ewt Pelosi crowd will now call it quits.
Good for him. There’s absolutely no reason for Gingrich to drop out after two extremely close 2nd place finishes that even two weeks ago looked impossible for him. Santorum seriously underperformed tonight, and most of his loss over the last two weeks appear to have shifted to Newt. The trend may yet be Newt’s friend.
Santorum might stand a chance in Pennsylvania if he can get a reciprocating endorsement from Arlen Specter and Sonya Sotomayor?
I’ll support Newt all the way to where he takes it.
“Good for him” = “Great for Romney”
Newt’s supporters won’t be pleased by this. But, thank God, Romney was edged out anyway. It was very close—although if you put the two conservatives together, Romney lost by a 2-1 margin.
Hard to say where Ron Paul voters would go if he dropped out. But he won’t, anyway. He is too fond of himself to do that, and he seems to enjoy being a spoiler. Plus, it does seem likely that Romney has promised him the VP-ship for Rand if he wins with Ron’s help.
Did newt win a state yet?
Problem: It’s taking all of us to Romney
Unfortunately, “Good for Santorum” = “Great for Obama.”
Rick Santorum is possibly the only guy running who would likely lose to Obama, even with Obama tanking in his own polls.
That makes NO sense whatsoever.
Shoot, I'm pleased as punch this evening.
If these primaries had been held three weeks ago, Newt would have finished a distant third in both, losing to both Santorum and Romney by at least ten points. As it stands, he finished a close second in both, in large part because Santorum underperformed among groups that are supposedly his core source of support. Even though Santorum won, the results tonight suggest that Santorum's slide is still continuing, and that Newt's momentum is still building, both of these observable trends over the past three weeks that remain true, regardless of headlines.
But GallupUSA showed Santorum beating Obama by a point and Gingrich trailing so far behind Obama that he fell out of the rear view mirror.
It makes perfect sense, if you look at a period of time longer than six hours.
Problem - Ricky would get rolled by Obama.
Yeah. Like Romney, he’ll depress turnout of the Republican party... only getting 1/3 of it (ie: the social conservatives).
While at the same time, he’ll energize the Democraps to turn out for Obama, just so they can try and stop him.
Which is not good.
But, that’s what the Republican voter is wanting. And he’ll get it.
Gingrich was expected to win these states. They are in his backyard. A week ago his campaign manager said that if he loses any one of them, he’d quit. The Gingrich camp and his campers on FR were booze dizzy with the polls showing Gingrich in the lead 24 hours ago. So close seconds don’t count here.
So?
Seriously, any of this head-to-head polling between GOP candidate X and Obama right now, eight months before election night, means diddly. This would be true, even if Gingrich were leading Obama in it by 20 points. Again - polling eight months before the culmination of what is almost assuredly going to be one of the most dynamic elections in American history is absolutely meaningless.
Or, to put it into perspective, at this point in 1980, Reagan was trailing Carter by twenty points in putative head-to-head pollings, which was of course an "extremely powerful and overwhelming argument" for not nominating him.
And before you try to retort with the childish comment that "Newt ain't Ronald Reagan," keep in mind that at this point in 1980, Ronald Reagan wasn't Ronald Reagan.
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