| Senator Rick Santorum |
Mitt Romney won Arizona and all of its delegates with a solid win, but barely eked out a victory over Rick Santorum in Romney's native state of Michigan. As a result the Michigan delegates will be shared evenly between Romney and Santorum.
At the beginning of this whole GOP contest, Rick Santorum was not given much of a chance. He was always at the back of the pack when it came to poll numbers and his campaign war chest was barely big enough to keep gas in his pick up truck as he drove around Iowa, meeting personally with thousands of Iowans.
But what Rick Santorum lacked in campaign funds, he made up in hard work and perseverance....He ended up winning the Iowa Caucuses to most of the professional pundits surprise.
Many of these same professional pundits have been surprised throughout this GOP contest. After votes are counted, once underdogs and those called out of the race, end up winners.
The only pundit who seems to be consistently accurate in his predictions so far is Dick Morris, who jokingly said he covers the whole field when he makes a prediction of who will win, so he is always right
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Since Iowa, Santorum again slipped to near back of the pack and even Newt Gingrich suggested he quit his campaign, since he was so far behind. Undeterred, Santorum continued using his dogged determination to slog it out in States where he had little built in infrastructure, describing himself as the real conservative of the race.
But then Santorum surprised the field with victories in 3 states, Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri. He was able to gain momentum to become the front runner in the polls leading up to yesterdays elections.
Having poll position in the GOP race has proved dangerous for everyone who has occupied first place so far this campaign and Santorum had to absorb the scrutiny and the brunt of millions in negative attack ads. As a result his popularity started to slip on the eve of yesterdays elections.
Santorum helped some his downward drift in popularity by making statements that some of the electorate found to be harsh. His judgement on birth control, women in combat positions and his comment on John Kennedy's speech regarding the separation of church and state, alienated some voters.
As a result, Rick lost some of his popularity, especially from women due to his birth control statements. His loss to Romney by a thin margin was probably due to his own gaffes.
But last night it sounded like Santorum learned his lesson. In Michigan he softened his speech and reached out to women, signalling a different tack.
The tension is building up to Super Tuesday and no one is making any solid predictions as to what the outcome will be. But there is one certainty; all of the candidates will be working hard to claim victory and among them will be Rick Santorum. Rick Santorum who just a month ago was being urged by some in the GOP to get out of the race, fought his way to the top of the heap. With hard work and determination can he do it again?
Ed was on air this afternoon with Radio Clare FM, talking to Gavin Grace and his audience about the important developments in American presidential politics.
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