In what will surely (again) tarnish Mitt Romney's aura of inevitability, Rick Santorum got a sweep in Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado. Daily Kos has the breakdown:
. | MO | MN | CO | ||
. | reporting | 100% | 88% | 99% | |
. | % | % | % | ||
. | Santorum, Rick ✓ ✓ ✓ | GOP | 55 | 45 | 40 |
. | Romney, Mitt | GOP | 25 | 17 | 35 |
. | Gingrich, Newt | GOP | 0 | 11 | 13 |
. | Paul, Ron | GOP | 12 | 27 | 12 |
. | Uncommitted | 4 |
Markos notes that no delegates were awarded last night. Of course, nary a word of that was mentioned when the state in question was Iowa and it wrongly looked as if Mitt Romney had won. The fact remains that right now Rick Santorum has won four states, Mitt Romney has won two, and Gingrich has won one. The perceived momentum of victories is, at this still early stage, far more important than delegate counting.
If nothing else, the GOP will have to count on the fact that their base conservatives will come home to vote for Mitt Romney if he does end up getting the nomination. In 2008, Clinton voters came charging back to Barack Obama. Of course theirs were more personality and style based, not ideology based differences...