Rick Santorum just made the GOP race a race again.
Marginalized throughout much of this 2012 GOP presidential contest as Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich battled it out, Santorum showed on Tuesday that he was very much a contender.
Earlier in the day, the former Pennsylvania Senator had already won both the non-binding Missouri primary with 55% of the vote and the Minnesota caucuses with 45% of the vote. And now, Santorum has just hit the trifecta, winning the Colorado Republican caucus as well.
Santorum notched 38% of the vote, barely edging out Romney, who had 37%. Gingrich (13%) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) (12%) scrapped for last place.
The cherry on the sundae that is this Colorado win in a day of other primary wins shows that Santorum will be a significant challenger to Romney in the next few weeks. The GOP presidential primary circus still looks like it has some excitement left in it.
Santorum campaigned aggressively in Colorado. On Monday in the state, Santorum attacked the new Obama administration rule that will force many religious employers (like Catholic universities and hospitals) to include birth control in the health plans of their workers. Such social conservatism seems to be winning Santorum dividends.
Santorum took an early lead in the polls, but Romney quickly caught back up as polls in the Denver suburbs began reporting. In Denver County, Romney edged out Santorum by over 10%, while in Boulder County, Romney lead by 7%.
Some Colorado voters in the Denver suburbs said that electability and the ability to defeat Barack Obama in November was the biggest factor as they made their decision. This played to Romney's advantage as he hoped to win the state he had won big in the 2008 primaries.
Still, Santorum won a number of rural counties, especially to the east and south of the state. As Super Tuesday approaches on March 6, Santorum's ability to sway rural voters will be critical to maintain his momentum.
In the Midwest and Mountain West, the social conservative Santorum seems to have finally gained the traction he needed in this primary contest. But in some respects Santorum’s big wins in this region of the United States shouldn’t come as a complete surprise. Remember that Santorum had in fact won the Iowa caucus (after the ballots were recounted three weeks after the caucus, he edged Romney by 34 votes). Santorum’s brand of conservatism seems to appeal to Middle America.
The Santorum surge truly throws a rod in the spoke of the Romney machine, adding new drama to the GOP Cirque du Soleil circus show.
As Mat Taibbi of Rolling Stone said, “Watching Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul and whoever else is running for the GOP nomination this week try to hold on to front-runner status has been great slapstick, like watching a cruel experiment involving baboons, laughing gas, and a forklift.”
Taibbi wrote that story a week ago. Tuesday’s results only prove that this GOP presidential race will be action-packed.
Early on Tuesday, Santorum spun the day as a potential turning point in the Republican presidential primary. “I feel great that Minnesota is going to change the direction of this race tonight,” Santorum said.
This was indeed be the big night Santorum was hoping for.
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore
The Discussion
I believe this reinforces what I have said previously. The GOP convention will end up brokered; 2 or 3 ballots.
One major factor for Santorum's success in Colorado is probably due to the support and endorsement of our congressional Tom Tancredo. A great number of people do not like that Denver was turned into a sanctuary city for illegals by John Hickenlopper; former mayor; now governor.
Tancredo has been a big supporter of taking action about the illegal situation we have. Contrary to how Tancredo is portrayed he is not a racist; he just believes in the law.
Since Tancredo advocates for Santorum noting he is the only candidate openly discussing / addressing the illegal issue in this country many Tancredo supporters (myself among them) will either support Santorum based on that recommendation or as least give him stronger consideration
Romney will probably stll get the nomination and go on to lose to Obama in Nov., prompting conservatives to complain that "if only we had a REAL conservative on the ticket", like they did in 2008. The GOP will then lurch further to the Right and Congress will get more dysfunctional. Yippee...
This just shows a deeper divide in the Republican Party than I previously expected, which bodes well for President Obama. But let's look at Santorum as a candidate. Anyone who aligns himself with an increasingly small minority of people who wish for a theocratic government is not going to be electable, plain and simple. It is like Margaret Atwood wrote this guy into existence.
If money doesn't start rolling in for him, then it is not a game changer.
Santorum will not be able to garner millennial support. He is way to zealous in wanting to push his beliefs onto the rest of the nation, which is not something young voters tend to like. If the Republicans choose him as their nominee, it will be a disaster for them in November.
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My, oh my! Cassandra sure blew it big time...huh?
No excuses, like: these caucuses/primaries didn't count because NO delegates were assigned. The question to answer is WHY?
Why was idiot-bigot-homophobe (he was MY Senator in PA, y'all; I have every right to call him whatever I want to call him) Rick Santorum the "winner" in 3 states that we all thought knew better than to vote for him?
Some thoughts: MO scheduled this early primary by law and then got sanctioned by the RNC so it decided the primary would only be a poll, instead. The real deal will be the caucus in either March or May (I forget) so who's going to come out for this poll? Fanatics and evangelicals. The real ground troops - organized for the caucus - won't bother. I think much the same happened in MN, which will award delegates at a state convention - although there HAS always been a weird streak to MN politics, so who the hell knows? Turnout numbers ought to tell the story.
I do NOT believe yesterday's "results" will give Santorum anything other than a psychological lift. He didn't get any delegates; he didn't get any money. He's not a viable candidate and he's barely a credible human being.
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I'd kind of like to see Santorum win the primary, if only to watch Obama dropkick him in the debates.
I was predicting a second wind for Santorum. He's a good guy. Maybe not as electable as Romney, but it's not over till it's over. These two are going to scrap it out for months.
Ron Paul and Gingrich are teeter=tottering for last, and I expect Gingrich to drop out sooner than he said he would.