Feb 07 2012
Trifecta! Santorum Slams Brakes On Romney’s Coronation
final update: Santorum pulls the upset, wins all 3 contests handily. Romney takes a huge loss as voters deny his inevitability!
Well, well, well. A very surprising night for the GOP primary race.
It’s 9:55 PM and with 30% of the locations reporting from Missouri Rick Santorum looks like he is going to win big. Fox News has Rick at 54% to Romney’s 26% and has now called the beauty contest for Santourm. Santorum has nearly twice Romney’s votes, which is clear indication that the ‘anyone but Romney’ insurgent voters out their in Main Street.
In the Minnesota caucuses Santorum is leading with 44% to Paul’s 27%, with Romney a distant 3rd at 17%. That is with 11% reporting so it is still early. But if that ALSO holds that will be two big wins for Rick.
So where will Colorado go? We shall see, but if Romney fails 3 out of 3 he will be hurt badly. Santorum has been winning the debates of late, so maybe it is the last anti-Romney candidate standing!
I could get behind a Santorum candidacy.
Major Update (11:56 PM): Surprise ending.With 32% reporting in Colorado Santorum leads 43% to Romney’s 29%. We may not have enough votes in yet, but Santorum looks to be on path to a trifecta win. What a blow to Romney and the GOP establishment!
Major Update (10:33 PM): As predicted CNN just called Minnesota for Santorum. He has 46% to Paul’s 26% and Romney’s 16%. Congratulations to Senator Santorum. Now we see where Colorado goes.
Major Update (10:20 PM): 23% of Minnesota results are in and the previous numbers are holding. I expect the networks to call MN around 10:30 PM for Santorum. With 70% of the vote tallied in Missouri Santorum has twice the votes of Romney, who finds himself back at the 25%. Big day for Santorum, huge blow to Romney.
Major Update (10:10 PM): Minnesota’s count keeps coming in and Romney looks to be toast. 20% of the votes are in and Santorum as 44%, Paul has 27% and Romney is fighting for 3rd at 17%. If Romney loses all three contests tonight his campaign will have taken a serious blow. Maybe even a terminal one.
This is good news. My preferences are in order, Santorum, Gingrich, Romney and Paul. BTW that should be “brakes”.
I’m glad to see that Santorum had a great day. I was leaning towards casting my vote for him. Even my mother acknowledged that she’s leaning towards him. So Romney’s attacks against Santorum’s earmarks are not working because Santorum was quick to point out that Romney’s staff received earmarks.
Santorum can certainly challenge Obama on ObamaCare.
I understand that Obama’s backing off on the contraceptive mandate.
I think Newt’s done.
Paul, too. Obviously, not many could agree with his foreign policy.
I see that the SC AG filed a lawsuit against Eric Holder over the voter ID act.
YAHOO! God-given rights and the constitutional limits to protect those rights.
Don’t believe Obama for one second. He may back off the health mandate for now, but put it back just after he is elected to another term. This guy is one of the most deceitful Presidents this country has ever known. Don’t trust him.
Kathie, I would not be surprised if Obama would do it again if he gets re-elected.
have a good friend who was in the Minnesota caucuses – he had told me a couple days ago that he and the people he knew there had decided on Santorum. The mutual assured destruction campaign between Romney and Gingrich worked – voters now hate BOTH of them!
And who knows, with Obama’s war on religion, maybe it IS the time for a culture-war candidacy after all!!!
As I thought earlier, should Santorum win, the calculus of the primary is changing tonight. Apparently, not only is Santorum winning, but it is a decisive win. Good for him! I still think his chances of defeating Obama are slim to none. But, he at least has my respect…and, it will be easier to vote for him than Gingrich.
wws, Santo staying away from these fights over Bain, Fannie, and Freddie and the anti-capitalism is one of the reasons. The way Santo responded to Romney over the earmarks…that’s pretty honest of Santo.
Mitt just gave a great speech.
just looking through the latest returns – Santo is even leading in Colorado, no one saw that coming! Of course Denver returns aren’t in yet and that could change things.
Gingrich’s numbers at this time are Colorado 16%, Minnesota 11%, Missouri – Zero! His campaign is finished. All Nasty, All the time just don’t cut it no matter how clever you are in a debate. Even if I disagree with Santo on some issues I know deep down that he is a good, decent man whose beliefs come from the heart. I can respect that and vote for him if he makes it on the ballot.
Well, I see Santorum as a very strong candidate against obama. With Newt maybe out, the tea party conservatives will be a very strong force for Santorum. The only reason it hasn’t been evident is that almost no one gave him much chance, tho I’ve seen and heard a lot of people all along saying they kinda liked Santorum but it didn’t look like he had a chance. Look for Romney to go to the bottom now, within a month at most. He may not survive all the primaries.
This is just an opinion.
I think what this means is that Santorum has finally become the official ABR candidate.
Everyone else had that mantle before him, and failed. He is the remaining candidate who, hanging on by a thread, has managed to be the last ABR’s standing. And, I think he will carry this title forward as being the one to oppose Romney to the end of the primaries (mainly, because there is no one else left). Gingrich will stay in the race, IMO, being a placeholder for his own ego, and nothing else. If Gingrich does this, he will do nothing but continue to be sour grapes for Romney and take votes away from Santorum.
At the conclusion, it is anyone’s guess as to who gets the nomination…although, I don’t think it will be Gingrich. Santorum was my second choice. Thank goodness, he is surging, versus Gingrich.
Total Republican turnout in tonight’s elections were in the low single digits. In Colorado, Santorum gets 5 delegates while Romney gets 4, remember that at this stage the primaries are NOT winner take all, they are proportional allocation. So Santorum gained 1 delegate on Romney in Colorado. In Minnesota (around 50,000 people in the whole state bothering to vote) Santorum gained four delegates (6-2). In Missouri I haven’t seen any delegates awarded so this might just be a straw poll and not mean anything. Currently the delegate count is:
Romney 106
Gingrich 38
Santorum 22
Paul 20
I thought the delegate votes in these three states are non-binding? MO is simply a “beauty contest” – no delegate votes until next month.
The question is will Santo’s trifecta win set the momentum for the rest of the primary season?
Santo continues to poll low in the national polls, though. Will his poll numbers improve after last night?
The Missouri primary is non-binding and has no impact on delegate allocation. Delegate selection begins at county caucuses on March 17.
Per Associated Press. The other states apparently do award delegates. Colorado has 33 delegates tied to these caucuses and 3 delegates “at large”. Minnesota has 37 delegates tied to the result and 3 at large.
So Santorum made up 4 delegates in an 80 delegate deficit. Not exactly all that big of a deal.
Oops, excuse me, Santorum gets 5 delegates up compared to Romney. He’s still about 80 delegates behind. Look, the vast majority of people in this country are center right, they are not far right. And I am actually surprised at AJ’s transformation over the years. He used to be a fairly center-right guy. I was actually quite surprised at his support for Gingrich and now Santorum. It seems to be “anybody but Romney” which seems a little odd to me. Remember that Romney didn’t just appear in office and suddenly shove a health care plan down the throats of the people in Massachusetts. They were already in the process of creating a health care plan based on Hillarycare. He succeeded in getting them to modify it to maintain private health care options for people instead of having everyone in the state on government health care.
I’m getting kinda tired of the anti-Romney demagoguery.
Thanks. I did read that those delegate votes aren’t binding until they are counted at the state convention. So I guess they were awarded but not officially counted until then?
The delegate deficit is pretty significant but a trifecta in one night is probably more significant in a temporary fashion. It muddled up the race just a bit more. Now they’re looking to Michigan and Arizona to see if Mitt remains strong enough to win the nomination.
The issue is the low voter turnout in these early primaries. How will this reflect the general election…no one knows but it’s definitely a concern.
Especially when some conservative pundits are talking about the SMOD and brokered conventions. Many elites are nervous about the brokered convention.
crosspatch, most people are not aware of what Mitt did to protect the private health care options. The mainstream media is going to make sure of it by protecting Obama. This is going to make it difficult for Mitt to defend RomneyCare against Obama’s ObamaCare. This may help Obama get re-elected.
I am surprised at AJ’s shift as well. I did like Regnery’s definition of a conservative as written in this month’s American Spectator magazine. His definition of a conservative does not match AJ’s earlier perception of conservatism.
Maybe, Maybe not. Santorum made up much more than 4 delegates, he won 3 states. Now some would like to sweep that under the carpet, but so far Romney has won 2 states, Santorum has won 4 states. Delegates, at this point, don’t matter, it’s perception. and the perception that one has won 4 states and the other has won 2 states seems significant. It’s all a matter, from Romney’s standpoint to show that he’s not a loser and losing in 4 states is hard to overcome. Especially losing in states that he won before when he was actually leading McCain. So now, it the same old thing, those that like a liberal candidate are going to continue to support Romney, those that want a Conservative have made their decision, and it AIN’T Romney.
Redteam, “winning” a state when fewer than 10% and closer to 5% of the voters even bother to vote doesn’t mean much.
Put another way, when 95%+ of the voters decide NOT to vote at all, I am not sure you can draw a valid conclusion from the vote count.
I lived in Mass for a few years. They were calling for government health care back in the 1980’s. I am really tired of the demagoging by people who don’t know what they are talking about.
Romney actually saved Mass. from a much worse fate.