The biggest prize in the assortment of various states and territories up for grabs in the Republican presidential contests this weekend went to Rick Santorum, who took Kansas with another smashing victory. The former senator got more than 51 percent of the vote, with Mitt Romney placing a distant second and barely eclipsing the 20 percent mark that was necessary for him to win some delegates there. But while another showing in which evangelical support led to a victory bolstered Santorum, the delegate math wasn’t altered much by the results. Santorum got 33 of Kansas’ delegates to the Republican National Convention with Romney picking up just 7. But while Santorum was winning Kansas, Romney cleaned up in Wyoming as well as in Guam, the Northern Marianas and the U.S. Virgin Islands, nearly offsetting the Pennsylvanian’s advantage. When the dust settles, Romney will still have more delegates than all of his GOP rivals combined.
Romney is clearly on track to win enough delegates to clinch the nomination at the Tampa convention, but he will do so without sweeping the GOP board as conservatives continue to rally around Santorum as not only the leading “not Romney” but also as their standard-bearer on social issues. Far from being discouraged, the Pennsylvanian’s backers are doubling down on their determination to fight Romney all the way to the convention while also seeking to find some way to persuade Newt Gingrich to leave the race and thus allow Santorum the opportunity for a one-on-one battle with the frontrunner. Though the ultimate outcome is not much in doubt, Republicans appear set to spend the next few months in engaging in a long drown-out struggle that will leave the victor in a weakened state to face off against President Obama in the fall.
Kansas provides the latest evidence that Santorum’s ability to rally the conservative base to his standard is no longer in question. And after a gathering with his major backers in Texas this weekend in which more money was raised for his super PAC to spend on his candidacy, there is also no doubt he has the resources to stay in the race, albeit on not equal terms with the better-funded Romney. With a new Chicago Tribune poll showing him in striking distance of Romney in Illinois, another month of bruising big-state confrontations between the two is guaranteed.
But Gingrich’s determination to stay in the GOP mix presents a formidable obstacle to Santorum’s goal of a matchup against Romney. Tuesday’s contests in Mississippi and Alabama both look to be close, with any one of the three contenders having a chance. The good news for Romney is not just that polls show him ahead in Mississippi and even with the others in Alabama, but that two out of the three possible outcomes benefit him. If he wins in either or both states, it shows he has the ability to win in the South and demonstrates he can win GOP primaries in any part of the country. But he also benefits from a Gingrich win in either state, as a victory for the former speaker in any state from here on out will be all he will need to convince himself he should stay in the race.
On Thursday, Santorum hinted that he would consider Gingrich as his putative running mate. Such a bargain might present a unified conservative front against Romney, but it’s not clear this would be enough to persuade Gingrich to give up. Santorum can only hope that a collapse of the Georgian’s campaign after losses in Mississippi and Alabama will persuade him there is no reason to go on.
Yet no matter what Gingrich decides to do this week, it appears the narrative of the GOP race is now set. Romney will go on picking up the delegates that will eventually enable him to clinch the nomination though he has little hope of that happening before June. At the same time, Santorum will go on presenting him with a formidable challenge that will make it clear Romney hasn’t clinched the deal with his party’s base.
Here’s a thought insofar as speculating on motives is concerned: maybe Gingrich calculates that he’s got more to get from Romney by staying in than from Santorum by dropping out.
This has the makings of a train wreck for the GOP, unfortunately. Romney eventually wins but will be greatly weakened (and he wasn't strong to begin with). Then the GOP will in-fight based on the very legitimate complaint that the social conservatives were too focused on purity rather than on winning. I can't believe how lucky Obama is.
The independents will not flock to vote for Romney who will refuse to actually voice the anti-Obama ads his SuperPacs may or may not dare to air while the Dems excoriate him as an evil zillionaire who wishes to kick granny and her wheelchair off a cliff. Saying that O is a nice man with good intentions who has failed won't stack up against the Dem attack line that Mitt is a cruel Mormon cultist (that'll be there too if need be). The base may not show up at all. Unfortunately, it wasn't the social conservatives who were focused on purity–they lost if Mittens wins–it was MIttens and his crew who underestimate the Democratic zeal for playing the basest and low-down meanest wedge politics on every social issue they can seize the day with. Fluke ain't no fluke. The moderate Mittens camp will deserve its thumping if it reserves more ire for the base than the mendacity of the gleefully hypocritical burn down the house Dems.
GOP will not flock to Santorum with his Flaming RINO record ESPECIALLY if he links up and has shown repeated proclivities for that willingness to team up with the likes of Dirty Bird Newt. n nAfter all, Newt brings with him to the GOP Ticket all his Associations which he has assured Michelle Bachman ARE NOT HIS ASSOCIATES UNLESS HE AGREES WITH THEM – including Fannie and Freddie, Andy Sternes, Michael Bloomberg, John McCain and Ted Kennedy SHAMNESTY, Al Sharpton and Arne Duncan on OBAMA EDUCATION POLICIES, Democrats on the existence of the Dept of Ed since CARTER days, the Tofflers, Nancy Pelosi and Algore and Hanoi John Kerry on Global Warming, and Hillary on Hillarycare, and Stimulus for $37 Million for his PAC to HELP INSURE the Individual Mandate as Federal Law. n nHow shall you get Tea Party ANGRY Republicans to vote for THAT package? HOW is that package different than what Obama represents? Especially combined with Santorum's VOTING RECORD which is far more powerful than his Campaign Speeches?????
Tell us Rose, who are you backing? Obama?
She doesn't know.
As for the math, that is 37 delegates that Romney does not get. nBrokered………….
I've been fiercely anti-Marxist since I was a child. Unlike some here, I've actually read the two main Agendas adopted by the Dim Party and the RINOS and their happy enablers: The Agenda ordered devised by Joseph Stalin that was published into the Congressional Record on January 10, 1963, and also the The Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. n nIF I had any clout, Obama would have never been Prxy – he would have already been in Prison awaiting his sentence after his trial being carried out. The court would have decided whether it was as a foreign espionage agent or as Treason after they saw his documents. nOthers on trial would be Party committee members of both parties at State and Federal levels As well as Congressional and Judicial who voted to pass on vetting Obama properly. n nI happen to be Far Right of these GOP Candidates. Not the Far Right described by some as "Nazi" or "Supremacists – which is actually just two more parties of Socialism or Marxism but indistinguishable from the "Communist" Party, or Fascism. Some difference to Feudalism, but if the Dictator is brutal enough – not significantly so, just not as "structured" Just more "whimsical". n nI am of the philosophies of the Founding Fathers of America – the George Washington's, James Otis, Samuel and John Adams, Patrick Henry, Bejamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush, Paul Revere and the Original Sons of Liberty, Francis Marion, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, etc… nOnly I am far from as Puritan as they are. nI don't like Big Government, but I don't like Destructiveness disguised as Liberty, which is only Licentiousness as ascribed to by such as Ron Paul who likes his as Spit in the Apple of God's Eye. n nI MAY vote for Mitt Romney if he isn't foolish in his choices between now and November as when he stated a reaffirmation of his support of Progressive taxes. If he is foolish, and doesn't begin to straighten up, instead, I will likely write in someone like Joe Arpaio or Franklin Graham or one of several others that comes to mind. n nFolks who are not as likely to act like Newt – Southern Border Security is the biggest joke they've ever seen, who love on McCain Kennedy SHAMNESTY as "pragmatic". Or like Ron Paul who clearly hopes Iran gives America and Israel what "we deserve" in his opinion, or Santorum who votes AGAINST Right To Work laws and FOR FELON VOTING and The Brady Bill, and supporting the likes of Spectre.