Mar 13 2012
Santorum Wins Deep South Tuesday – Romney Comes In 3rd
Tonight’s results are very, very interesting. Rick Santorum took both Alabama and Mississippi tonight. But worse for Mitt Romney (the anointed one) is the fact he came in 3rd in both races. Gingrich stole second place meaning “Anybody but Romney” took another round of races.
This means Gingrich and Santorum will stay in the race for a while longer. But more importantly it means the combined delegate counts of Santorum and Gingrich (486) is larger than Mitt Romney’s count (470). If this continues Santorum and Gingrich could make a play for the POTUS/VPOTUS tag team at the convention in a very legitimate manner.
Romney is not a given. Too much of the GOP voting block is not sold on him. When he is not able to win split decisions like this and swamp Gingrich and Santorum, that is a serious sign of trouble.
The GOP establishment in concert with the overall Political Industrial Complex can try and spin this all they want. But Obama is very likely to lose, so GOP voters can afford the luxury of being very picky.
Would a Santorum-Gringrich team be attractive?
Apparently that is the case for 64.4% of the voters in Alabama and 64.4% of the voters in Mississippi. Coincidence?
Not likely. Mitt lost 2-1 in these states. He is the front runner only when viewed with serious blinders on.
Update: As usual, check out the Hot Air thread for this Deep South Primary Tuesday for some interesting discussions.
I think this one day is going to throw the nomination over to Santorum. He’s been trending upward for quite some time and when a lot of Romney supporters see that Romney is never going to be over about 33% tops, they are going to start switching over.
But I thought Newt was going to be the nominee, so what do I know.
(I do know I haven’t spent any overnights locked in a bar)
Both are open primary states and there are a LOT of Democrats voting for Santorum because they are going to make him look like an absolute fool during the general election.
They are trying to set Santorum up for the nomination and then will absolutely skewer him.
The man has nothing but social issues. He’s weak on economics, weak on government, weak on experience at anything besides being a politician.
A vote for Santorum is a vote for Obama.
All in all it looks like Santorum in AL and MS reduced the spread by 9 delegates tonight. He closed 8 delegates in AL and 1 in MS. He is only 237 behind now.
According to CNN’s delegate count: Romney has 498, Santorum 239, Gingrich 139, and Paul 69.
I don’t know the rules on whether if Gingrich drops out, if his delegates automatically go to the person he endorses? Or, are they freed-up to go where each delegate choses to support? Should Gingrich team up with Santorum as his VP, does this mean his delegates are pledged to Santorum, even though they were initially pledged to Gingrich as a presidential candidate?
I think delegates have to vote for whoever won them in the election in states that bind delegates per their election, BUT only for the first vote. If no one wins on the first vote, then most delegates can then vote for whoever they wish. It’s kind of an honorary thing.
CP:”A vote for Santorum is a vote for Obama.”
What’s your thinking here? Santorum didn’t invent Santorumcare.
seems as if Romney invented Romneycare and supplied the pattern for Obamacare.
Looking like a fool? Have you seen Santorum talking about ‘cheesy grits’? There is no such thing. Have you seen Santorum singing ‘Davy, Davy Crockett?
I live in the South and there is nothing that looks like a bigger fool than a New England northerner trying to amuse a bunch of southerners by saying y’all and singing Davy Crockett and talking about how he loves fried catfish just a few days after saying he didn’t like them.. What a clown. Skewered, that’s a kabob.
I do not like Santorum much more than I like Romney.
I hope that Gingrich pulls this out
Will say this. A Gingrich Santotum ticket might work for me, not the other way around. Santorum would mop the floor with Joe “Bite Me” Biden. But then almost any candidate would.
Gingrich is Obama’s worst nightmare in many ways. The standard MO for democrats for the last 30 years has been to call Republicans dumb, stupid or simpletons. They can’t do that with Gingrich.
Newt just appears to me, despite some of his baggage, to be the best qualified, best prepared, and best able candidate. I also think that Gingrich understands the limits of social issues better than Santorum.
In reading AJ’s deduction about the election — adding up Santorum and Gingrich’s totals and concluding that such a team would be attractive — I look at this as selective processing of AL and MS.
Why I say this is that these states’ composition is primarily composed of evangelicals — something like 80% in AL and 83% in MS. This is a demographic that would be attracted to a Santorum and Gingrich candidacy rather than the Mormon northern, such as Romney. Also, it is a demographic that seems more unique to the southern states than the other quadrants in this country.
But, do evangelicals make up the majority when looking at the population of the U.S. as a whole, which a republican nominee would be facing in the GE? Just going on an historical reference one could examine the 2008 election, which propelled a sizable evangelical population to the polls because of Sarah Palin being on the ticket. In this election they comprised 26% of the entire electorate, or approximately 25%, not enough to carry an election, by a long shot.
As I see it, the republican primary’s interests are far different than the GE. In our party’s primary people are narrowing their choices to represent their own concerns and social values. However, in the GE, the entire country gets in the act, and the republican nominee then has to have a broader appeal in order to sufficiently be able to counter, not only the democrats’ concerns and social values, but woo away those who are sitting on the fence, such as conservative dems and indies. It has been estimated that there is a small margin of people, perhaps as little as 4%, who will be able to turn the election, one way or another. Consequently, IMO, a Santorum or Gingrich candidate is far too strident and/or micro-focused on social issues to reach out beyond the base.
Basically, their views are repugnant outside of the far right comfort zone. Gingrich’s personal issues (marital past) are his Achilles Heel. And Santorum is viewed as sanctimonious and scary by religious people outside the evangelical corridor. As an example of this, I had breakfast with one of these women this morning…a very fiscally conservative woman who thinks a 3rd party of moderates will be formed if either Santorum or Gingrich become the R nominee. Her ire and dismay, especially towards Santorum, surprised me, and I’ve known her for years through school functions, scouting, and church.
RT:
Wishful thinking. Your boy Ricky may be getting the headlines but…
Delegates won Tuesday: Romney 41, Santorum 35.
Some victory!
How do we find out how many registered democrats voted in the AL primary?
Jan, for every woman like you mentioned above I can find you examples of Evangelicals that WILL NOT vote for a Mormon and I learned this last go around when I did in fact vote for Romney. I was shocked at the Evangelicals that told me no way would they vote for a Mormon, shocked!
I agree with your assessment that Rick is probably too strident on social issues and that is why I favor Newt, but if Rick should win it is incumbent upon the Evangelicals and the Catholic church to pick up the gauntlet the Lyin kING has thrown down and evict him from the People House on First Amendment issues alone.
For far too long the Catholic church has given a wink and a nod to Govt involvement in charities and birth issues and this Lyin POTUS has thrown it in their faces big time. Stomped upon them and their supposed rejection of contraception and abortion and threatens to take away their charitable deductions and bring all charity into the Big Government social engineering scheme.
I will be very curious to see how the Church itself and the Parishioners respond. If they respond like the Catholics in congress did we will have four more years of the Lyin kING!
dhunter
What you say is probably true about evangelicals detesting the thought of voting for a Mormon. I’ve heard a few of them call in on talk radio. The best way to describe this problem is: “Houston, we have a problem…!” as there are people who won’t vote for Gingrich or Santorum for the reasons I mentioned. Then there are others who won’t give Romney a second look because of his religion.
However, people need to take it a step further from their own biases in thinking through who will ultimately be the beneficiary of all this republican ill-will —–> Obama.
BTW, although I am a Romney supporter, I will vote for the republican nominee, whoever it turns out to be, as the greater focus is to defeat Obama. Everything else is secondary for me.
This should be the rallying cry of the Republican party, replacing all the divisiveness that is now taking place!
The problem with the Evangelicals will not vote for a Mormon argument is that most Evangelicals don’t like Catholics either. Many, though I do not know the percentage, Evangelicals Catholics to be a false religion and just as much a cult as Mormonism.
Thus, Evangelicals have a choice between two objectionable religious positions.
Sorry for the deleted word.
Meant to say: Many, though I do not know the percentage, Evangelicals consider Catholics to cultist just like Mormons.