Slow and steady wins the race for Romney

Mitt Romney survived another charge from the right last night. This time it was Rick Santorum who was vanquished by Romney. If it holds, Santorum will be the 4th "not Romney" candidate dispatched by Mitt after attaining frontrunner status.


As you recall, Perry soared to the top of the polls when he entered the race in Sep. A couple of lack luster debate performances later, where he forgot one of the four government departments he would cut and calling people who want to enforce the law on illegal immigration “heartless,” Rick dropped like a stone before the Iowa caucuses and was gone before the SC primary.

Then it was Herman Cain’s turn. Who? Yeah, how quickly we forget. Cain was all the rage. He imploded under a load of unsubstantiated harassment allegations. Then when it came to light that Herman was paying some gal money without his wife’s knowledge, the jig (Can you say that? No. Not on ESPN.) was up. Herman was gone.

Then in Dec, after several strong debate performances, Newt rocketed to the top. Romney dropped a ton of ad money on Newt’s head before the Iowa caucuses basically reminding voters about Newt’s past. It worked. After mustering a SC win, Newt has disappeared.

I suppose Santorum had been riding under the radar all along. After a close second to Romney in Iowa, that turned out to be a Santorum win, Rick started to tick up in polls. Then in Feb, Santorum swept three state primaries, CO, MN and MO. With Newt sitting MI out, Santorum piled up a 15 point lead over Romney, but after a lack luster debate performance in AZ, last night he lost MI by 3. If my public school math is correct that’s nearly an 18 point swing.

Santorum is trying to color this as a win because Romney had to spend money and time to win his native state. When you have a 15 point advantage and end up losing by 3, it’s not a win Rick. It actually shows how brittle your support is. Consider how bad it might have been for Santorum had the Demo-Dopes, whose votes Santorum actively campaigned for, not been allowed to vote in MI. 3 points might actually be 5 or better.

Is Santorum dead? Don’t know. Doubt it. Can Newt make a come back? Don’t know. Probably. Has Romney been the steadiest horse in this race? Yes.

Check out this very interesting chart on Real Clear Politics. It summarizes the above clearly, accurately and quickly. Lex, why didn’t you put the link at the top then? Well, why would anyone read my musings if you could just look at the chart?