Lessons From Not So Super Tuesday 2012 – Time For Republicans To Consolidate:
Super Tuesday leaves little room for the imagination – no surprises.
Last night’s Super Tuesday Republican primaries 2012 didn’t help to determine much. Mitt Romney had a good showing and the still crowded field made no new revealing headlines. It’s unclear at this point who will become the nominee and the early primary season has given the candidates opportunities to become frontrunners except for Ron Paul who doesn’t seem to have a chance at the moment but this could change. It may be clearer to donors who isn’t going to be the nominee than who is.
Mitt Romney needed to win big to make sure headlines today weren’t filled with the word ‘upset’ and carrying Ohio helped him seem like the ‘apparent’ nominee but at this time last election season, Hillary Clinton – the ‘apparent’ Democratic nominee was losing steam to President Obama although some elements media didn’t make it clear that she didn’t have much of a chance left.
Rick Santorum needed to win as much as possible to show he has staying power and is a viable option for conservatives as well as get more cred with search engines. If he can consolidate potential voters in the South in the next few primaries, he still has a chance to win.
Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul are a bit unusual to analyze. Their campaigns seem to lack follow through that is necessary and a long drawn out four man race could be deleterious to the Republican Party’s chances of winning in November 2012 since there will be a lack of political consolidation of effort needed to beat an incumbent president.
This primary can’t be compared to 2008
Unlike when president Barack Obama began to lead as the Democratic nominee he and Clinton were running against a new face not an incumbent president. A crowded Republican Party may not achieve the same success the Democrats had in 2008. Expect more calls for those who finish poorly to suspend their campaigns and support one of the top two candidates while they still have political capital to spend.
Mitt Romney leads the delegate count with 415 delegates followed by Rick Santorum’s 176 and Gingrich’s 105. A splintered Republican party may find it even more difficult to beat President Barack Obama as the economy improves, jobs grow and businesses get stronger.
