Super Tuesday GOP update

March 7, 2012

Vermont, Massachusetts, Virginia, Ohio, Idaho and Alaska; Romney won 6 of the 10 states that voted on Tuesday.

Despite the results, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are both vowing to stay in the race.

After Super Tuesday, the good news for Mitt Romney was all about the math.

He won 6 of 10 states, he earned 40% of the delegates, and he now has twice as many delegates as either of his main rivals.

"We're doing some counting, we're counting up the delegates for the convention, and it looks good, and we're counting down the days until November, and that looks even better," says Romney.

The bad news is that the math did not create momentum, and Romney did not knock out any of the other candidates.

"We are staying in this race, because I believe that it's going to be impossible for a moderate to win the general election," said Newt Gingrich.

Romney apparently won in Ohio, barely holding off Rick Santorum despite heavily outspending him.

The former Pennsylvania senator looks to do well in the upcoming contests in conservative Kansas, Alabama and Mississippi. For now, he seems happy with how his campaign is doing.

"We are going to lose a few, and win a few," said Rick Santorum. "But as it looks right now, we are going to get at least a few gold medals and a whole lot of silver medals."

And also troubling for Romney, although exit polls said GOP voters think he has the best chance to beat President Obama, they think Santorum better understands average Americans.

"A candidate has to be able to connect with the voters, and Romney just doesn't seem to get that," said Cokey Roberts.

Political analysts say the math makes it almost impossible for Gingrich or Santorum to get the nomination at this point, but they can slow Romney down and show that he is a weak candidate going into the convention.

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