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Last night was a big night for Rick Santorum, as he secured primary victories in two southern states, Alabama and Mississippi. His double win proved not only that he is still a serious candidate but that Newt Gingrich’s Southern strategy is simply not going to work, leaving Santorun the more viable non-Romney choice.
While Gingrich claims he will keep running, it is hard to see how voters will continue to see him as a real contender. Gingrich has only won South Carolina and his home state of Georgia. If Gingrich can’t win in Mississippi, a state that is almost custom made for Gingrich, it is almost impossible to see where else he could possibly win. As the race has gone on, his poll numbers have dropped nationally and his unfavorable rating has reached incredible heights. Even if Gingrich stays in, Santorum has the chance to use his two wins last night to make the case that he is the only viable anti-Romney candidate left in the race.
Mitt Romney managed to pull off big victories in the Hawaii caucus and in American Samoa, though turnout was low. The Mormon factor continued to deliver for the Romney campaign. Hawaii is the latest state with a large LDS population to go for Romney, and those states are giving him a large number of delegates. As a result Romney should technically net more delegates from yesterday than Santorum did, but it was still a disappointing evening for Romney.
The two contest in the South couldn’t have gone much worse for the Romney campaign. If Romney had won both of the Southern states he might have wrapped up the nomination rather quickly. Instead he came in third in both states.
Last night again showed that Romney has serious trouble winning over a large share of the GOP base. Even worse for the Romney campaign, the poor showing by Gingrich makes it less likely he and Santorum will evenly split the anti-Romney vote. The divided vote has helped Romney win several small plurality victories and keep the delegate split in the South relatively even, while Romney racked up big numbers in the West and North East.
Santorum’s wins last night effectively assure that this primary fight will go on for at least several more months. Given how damaging the primary has been to Romney’s favorability ratings with the general public, that should be very concerning to his campaign.
6 Comments
What’s the total turnout in all the ‘primaries’ to date?
Just wondering if R candidate is being selected by a group bigger than those who used to meet in smoke filled rooms.
From what I’ve been reading, they could have met in a phone booth. Seriously, apparently the turnout is extremely low because the Rs just can’t figure out who they want to take to the dance. Not too surprising since all their candidates have 2 left feet.
If I may…..in almost every GOP debate, somebody has said “No matter who we nominate on this stage, they will b e better than Obama.”
Perhaps that is really the sentiment of many republican voters. Maybe that’s why they are turnig out in such low numbers. Not only can’t they make up their minds, but,to them, it really doesn’t matter. Look at the fact that EVERYBODY has been “in the lead” at one time or another only to crash and burn. You know what they say, “You can fool SOME of the people ALL of the time.”
I must say I was a little surprised. I figured gingrich would win MS and AL. But those crazy religious nutjobs voting for another crazy religious nutjob shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. PLus, there IS a serious anti-Mormon feeling in the South.
The clown car rolls on………
Yes, may not matter that much if Gingrich gets out. . . which may prove humiliating to him and get him out by itself.
I have no idea why people thought the Catholic Gingrich would best the Catholic Santorum in the Deep South. Santorum epitomizes today’s well-groomed evangelicals, among whom some right-wing Catholics definitely number. I remember attending an “ecumenical” prayer breakfast in a small Illinois town once where the preacher who led suggested Catholics were not Christians, but Santorum represents that strand of anti-abortion evangelical Catholicism that right-wing Protestants embrace; Gingrich can play the hate card, but that’s not always so appealing to today’s megachurch attending Protestants, who often number black people in their denominations. And he is one of those hare-brained intellectuals who come to Catholicism for its idolatrous lure; think T.S. Eliot without the talent.
Somewhere there is a cross that stands sans fire. In a closet neatly pressed sheets and pointy hats hang like dead people. It is a sad day for racism. Newt lost the south.People just settled for “Let’s all hate the gays” Rick Santorum.