American voters watched three contests last night, a "show" primary in Missouri (the MO. caucuses are on March 17, 2012), caucuses in Minnesota and caucuses in Colorado.Rick Santorum won in all three contests.
The surprise of the night was the Colorado Caucus results where Santorum won with a 5 percent margin despite expectations across the board of a Romney win, with Intrade even giving Romney a 97 percent chance of winning.
In Missouri, only Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul were on the ballots, Newt Gingrich is on the March 17, 2012 caucus ballot didn't participate in the show primary. Santorum took 55 percent of the vote, Romney took 25 percent and Paul 12 percent.
Note-The Missouri primary is non-binding and has no impact on delegate allocation. Delegate selection begins at county caucuses on March 17. 52 delegates tied to caucus process.
In Minnesota, CNN reports on 95 percent of the vote reported and Santorum took 45 percent, Ron Paul took second place with 27 percent of the vote, Romney third place with 17 percent and Gingrich with 11 percent.
In Colorado, CNN shows 99 percent reporting and has Santorum the winner with 40 percent of the vote, Romney in second place with 35 percent, Gingrich in third place with 13 percent and Paul in fourth with 12 percent.
Note- As per previous statements in the media about focusing on Super Tuesday contests (March 6, 2012, where 10 contests occur in one day) and the Gingrich campaign's schedule, Gingrich spent his day in Ohio campaigning.
As headlines and discussions across the Internet about last night, there is no doubt that Rick Santorum was a big winner coming into this morning.
The biggest losers last night were Romney and every media outlet, every Republican establishment member and anyone else that continued to perpetrate the "Romney is inevitable" meme.
There were other winners last night as well. The anti-Romney voters. Voters that do not want to see Romney get the 1,144 delegates needed to obtain the GOP nomination for President. Voters that would rather this battle be fought right to convention rather than see Romney as the nominee.
AndyZ over at Right Pundits brings me to the next two headlines I noticed over at Memeorandum.
Andy writes:
So why did Rick Santorum win all three elections? A combination of elements contributed to the results. First, Santorum was the least tainted after a nasty dogfight between Romney and Gingrich in Florida. Mitt may have won in Florida, but he won ugly, carpet bombing Gingrich with some 13,000 negative TV ads compared to only 200 aired by Newt. Romney′s favorables have been declining nationwide since then.
He ends his excellent analysis with "Look out, Rick, because you will be carpet bombed by the Romney machine next!"
Good call Andy, because the headlines I referred to are, CNN with "TRENDING: Romney will take tougher approach to Santorum, adviser says," and WSJ with "Front-Runner Is Targeting Santorum."
The pro-Romney SuperPAC, Restore Our Future, has just been given their marching orders: Carpet bomb Santorum.!!!
Next up will be the CNN and the Republican Party of Arizona sponsored GOP primary debate on February 22, 2012, on CNN at 8pm ET held at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona.
Then on February 28, 2012, Michigan and Arizona will be holding primaries.
(Full Republican primary/caucus schedule found HERE)
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