Super Tuesday splinters GOP
Republican presidential nomination up for grabs after battles in 10 states
WASHINGTON— Political fractures on the American right came into high relief on Super Tuesday, a 10 - state whirlwind that left the race for the Republican presidential nomination wholly unresolved.
Though presumed front-runner Mitt Romney fared well overall, racking up wins in Massachusetts, Vermont, Virginia and Idaho, his well-funded bid for a momentous night to vault him to national viability fell flat.
At his heels was Rick Santorum, the social conservative-cum-blue collar populist, who scored three key victories of his own, claiming Tennessee, Oklahoma and North Dakota.
All eyes remained on Ohio, however, a delegate-rich slice of the American rustbelt, where unconfirmed results pointed to Romney eking out a wafer-thin win, 38 per cent to Santorum’s 37 per cent.
The cliffhanger in Ohio, widely seen as the bellwether state for future Republican fortunes, was unlikely to translate into significant momentum for either candidate, effectively neutralizing Super Tuesday as a game-changer.
Newt Gingrich, meanwhile, cruised to a must - win victory in his native Georgia. But the former House speaker won nothing else.
Libertarian-leaning candidate Ron Paul appeared set to end the night with another shutout, his first victory still unfound despite several strong second-place finishes.
Speaking at his campaign headquarters in Boston, Romney shrugged off the setbacks. He vowed he would doggedly persevere to claim the Republican crown to run against President Barack Obama in November.
“I’m not gonna let you down, I’m gonna get this nomination,” said Romney. “We’re gonna take your vote — a huge vote tonight in Massachusetts — all the way to the White House.”
Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator and the only one of the four to stay in Ohio for Super Tuesday’s results, told cheering supporters in the small town of Steubenville that he shared his victories with the recession-wracked rust-belt.
“This is our roots . . . this is where we’re from,” said Santorum, flanked by family, including his 93-year-old mother. “This campaign is about the towns that got left behind and the families that made these the greatest towns in the country.
“We have won in the west, the Midwest, the south — and we’re ready to win across this country,” said Santorum.
Alaska remained untabulated at press time.
Super Tuesday was introduced in 1988 to test the nationwide mettle of candidates by clustering together a wide range of states in one night.
Though the 2012 edition of Super Tuesday came with more delegates than the past two months combined, Romney was projected to end the night with a total of some 400 delegates — still barely a third of the 1,144 needed to secure the Republican nomination.
For the former Massachusetts governor, some of those delegates came easy. In Virginia, for example, he coasted to victory on a ballot that did not include Santorum and Gingrich, whose fledgling campaigns failed to meet the state’s primary requirements in time.
Those technical successes — and others in Ohio, where Santorum failed to qualify for delegate victories in 18 congressional districts — reflect the sheer depth of the establishment-backed Team Romney. But that fiscal and organizational superiority is a double-edged sword — a fact each of his Republican rivals continues to exploit, tapping the palpable anti-establishment mood among staunch American conservatives. Gingrich, with his single win in Georgia, is expected to face rising pressure to withdraw from the race. But in a spirited victory speech in Atlanta, the former House speaker chided all opponents, emphasizing that he is far from done. “You believed in the power of ideas — that, in fact, Wall Street money can be beaten by Main Street work,” Gingrich told supporters as they waved placards showing gas pumps, in reference to his populist vow to drive fuel prices down to $2.50 per gallon. “I believe I am the one candidate who has the ability to debate Barack Obama decisively,” Gingrich said. Romney’s night came after weeks of carpet-bombing his rivals with negative advertising — in some cases, such as in Ohio, by a ratio of five-to-one. But the final outcome appeared not to reflect the dollar differential. In one of the night’s more memo- rable twists, conservative firebrand Sarah Palin, a paid contributor to Fox News, was captured live by CNN’S cameras as she and her husband Todd cast their votes in Wasilla, Alaska. Palin later told Fox she had voted for Gingrich. But the former vicepresidential candidate made clear she wants the Republican primary process to continue. “Any of the four candidates are stronger than Obama,” Palin told CNN. “There is no need to drop out; they should stay in the race.” The outcome in Tennessee was especially telling, with Santorum headed toward a double-digit victory in the staunchly conservative Bible Belt state. Those numbers are as good for Santorum as they are bad for Romney, given the distinctly southern flavour of the next wave of primaries, which include Kansas (March 10, 40 delegates), Alabama and Mississippi (March 13, 50 delegates and 40 delegates, respectively).
thestar.com