"Romney is still by far the likely nominee. He is still the only candidate with resources and an organized team. Tuesday’s elections were “non-binding beauty contests.” And this is likely a temporary stall: Mitt Romney will regain momentum heading into Arizona, Michigan and Super Tuesday.
But Romney was locked out of first place in all three races Tuesday night, including Colorado, a state where he won more than 60 percent in 2008. He was expected to win two of the races a few days ago and viewed as the likely victor in Colorado a few hours before voting began.
Even with the Romney campaign’s pre-spinning of the losses, the Rick Santorum clean sweep was a stinging rebuke of the front-runner. In the end, he got just over half the percentage he took in Colorado four years ago.
The expectation heading into February was that this would be a strong month for the former Massachusetts governor.
But his Florida momentum evaporated with his comments about concern for the “very poor,” which may have turned off conservative voters in these races. Now, Santorum has more statewide wins than Romney, and Arizona — which has a sizable Mormon population but also a conservative-leaning GOP electorate — is the stage of the next big Republican battle.
Romney’s ongoing struggles with the conservative base of his party may not matter once he becomes the nominee. But it’s going to be awfully hard for Romney boosters to argue those problems are being overhyped by the news media in light of Tuesday night’s outcome and the lack of enthusiasm it speaks to.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72599.html
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire