By all appearances, Mitt Romney has won the Ohio primary. At one point down by 18,000 votes, the former Massachusetts governor is now in the lead thanks to the urban, high-income counties surrounding Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland.
Barring anything short of a miracle, Romney will barely squeak by Santorum in the Buckeye State. And by picking up wins in Massachusetts, Vermont, Idaho and Virginia, you can expect to hear the spin out of Boston that Romney is the only candidate that has won major states in all regions of the country and is in the best position to reach the magic delegate number of 1,144 to secure the nomination.
Though it makes me sick to my stomach to say it, the GOP base will need to start coming to grips with the fact that Romney is likely the eventual nominee. While Santorum has given Romney a tough fight and has shown that he deserves to be in a two-way race with the Massachusetts governor, the hubris of Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul — who are determined to stay in the race no matter what — will likely split the anti-Romney vote and deny Santorum any real shot at capturing the nomination.
So where does this leave Mitt Romney? The short answer — in a very weakened position.
Up until today, the former Massachusetts governor had averaged only 36% support in the 12 states leading up to Super Tuesday. Up until today, Romney had only captured a majority of voters in one state — Nevada. Hardly impressive figures. Even with a win in Ohio, 60% of Buckeye GOP’ers said “Thanks, but no thanks” to Romney and his platform.
When (and if) Romney does secure the nomination, he has a lot of work to do to coalesce the conservative base behind him. And that may prove to be more difficult than some think, considering that the candidate has all but refused to meet or speak with conservative grassroots leaders and groups. Will Romney finally reach out to these conservatives? Will he make another pitch to the grassroots for their support?
And while Romney spends time trying to bridge the gap with conservatives, Obama and his billion dollar campaign machine will be preparing — and waiting.
HI.
IKE WOULD HAVE BEEN THRILLED TO GET 36% GOING INTO THE 1952 CONVENTION. HE HAD ONLY 26%.
WENT ON TO DEMOLISH THE DEMS – TWICE!
IKE CAPTURED THE NOMINATION IN 1952 ULTIMATELY BECAUSE MOST SAW HI AS THE MOST ELECTABLE.
LIKE MITT.
YOUR POST MAKES ME FEEL YOU’D HAVE NOT WANTED IKE HAD YOU BEEN AROUND IN 1952.
YOU’D HAVE BEEN AS WRONG THEN AS YOU ARE NOW ABOUT MITT: MITT IS N A GOOD POSITION TO BEAT OBAMA.
THIS COMMENT I FRANKLY BIZARRE:
“Will Romney finally reach out to these conservatives?”
HE HAS FROM DAY ONE.
Yeah,
Romney’s just like Ike. The general that beat the Nazis.
Jesus you people are delusional.
Delusional and with caps locks. Whodathunkit?
Stop yelling.
Just keep saying:
“15 Trillion in Debt, 15% unemployed, 5 dollar a gallon gas”
I don’t care if he has 2 billion dollars in his campaign, he cant paper over those numbers.
Romney/West 2012.
One thing I feel has been overlooked is that there are a lot of us (me included) that prefer most of Santorum’s platform over Romney, but are dead set against putting a management neophyte into the White House again. Some of Obama’s miserable mistakes are policy-related, but there are many that are symptoms of his total lack of executive experience. For that reason, I would gladly take a more-than competent manager that can only sign what a congress hands him vs. taking yet another chance on a man who has not proven that he can manage more than a campaign staff.
The president is leader of their party.
Pres Mitt would drag the party right.