Mitt Romney!
The Iowa-New Hampshire-South Carolina Republican primary has finally been broken, although it still has not provided a clear front runner. Mitt Romney won the Florida primary last night with a total of 46% of the vote. Newt Gingrich came in 2nd with 32% and Rick Santorum had 13%. Ron Paul was in last place with 7%. Romney dipped into his deep war chest and spent a huge chunk of funds on negative attack ads against Gingrich to knock him down a few pegs. It worked!
Although Romney won the night and broke the tie, the GOP is still far from conciliation. 1144 delegates are required to clinch the Republican nomination and although Romney is ahead of his competitors, the totals thus far are near evenly split. Romney now has just under 80 delegates, which means he has a long way to go before becoming the nominee. With several southern states coming up on the voting schedule, including Gingrich’s home state of Georgia, along with a huge prize from Texas, Newt could clean up and practically even up the race or possibly surpass Romney.
This race is far from over and will go down to the wire. No other candidate is expected to drop out, since 1 or 2 states could easily turn the tide and propel any of the remaining men toward the nomination. So sit back and enjoy the show — the Obama campaign certainly is!
"Although Romney won the night and broke the tie, the GOP is still far from conciliation."Boy what an understatement!I still think it likely that Romney will *win* the nomination, for whatever it'll be worth when he finally crosses the finish line(?) Newt can continue to be a thorn in Romney's side. And IF Newt stays in the race, he stands a good chance of wining several southern states. However, at the end of the day, I think Mitt will have the delegates needed.But here's the BIGGER problem for Romney. Enthusiasm among the "heart-and-soul" of the GOP's most loyal and active voting block (the right-wing Conservative base) is NOT there. A sizeable chunk still doesn't like OR trust him. Just look at voter turnout in Iowa: Down from 2008. Voter turnout in S.C. was up by 156,000+ but the voters (mostly conservative) went for Newt. Voter turnout was up in N.H. by 14,000 votes compared to 2008. But it was a… Read more »