PJ: Not long ago, Newt Gingrich's campaign was declared dead but that was before he won the S. Carolina vote which gave him front-runner status. At that time, supposed front runner Mitt Romney was said to be in trouble...but that was before he swept the vote in Florida and Nevada and was adorned with the front-runner crown once again. Rick Santorum has always been in the rear of the pack with the notable exception of finally being declared the winner in Iowa (but that was after it was mistakenly handed over to Romney). Sadly for Santorum, however, he has never been seen as front-runner materiel. Now with his wins in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado, Rick Santorum is once again in the political land of the living and possibly on his way to wearing the crown...at least until the next contest.
The Sydney Morning Herald
Santorum revitalised by latest results
By JIM RUTENBERG
His candidacy all but dismissed just days ago, Rick Santorum won the Minnesota caucuses today and also captured a non-binding primary in Missouri, raising new doubts about Mitt Romney's ability to capture conservative support.
With his unexpected victories, Mr Santorum was also suddenly presenting new competition to Newt Gingrich as the chief alternative to Mr Romney, who holds a strong lead in delegates.
Mr Santorum's victory in Missouri was symbolic. The vote will not affect the awarding of delegates, which will be decided at district and state conventions later this year.
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But it gave him an important lift that his campaign hoped would translate into an infusion of donations and support from the conservative Republican voters — evangelicals and Tea Party adherents — who have told pollsters all year that they are searching for an alternative to Mr Romney.
Declaring that it is now Mr Santorum, not Mr Gingrich, who holds that title, Hogan Gidley, a senior aide, said in a telephone interview, "It's Rick's turn."
Mr Gingrich was not on the ballot in Missouri, helping to create Mr Santorum's opening; but he was competing in Minnesota, where the party is known for the religious conservatism of a former Republican candidate, Michele Bachmann.
Mr Romney's campaign was still hoping to edge out Mr Santorum in Colorado, a state he carried in 2008. But the Missouri results suggest that he still has his work cut out for himself with crucial Republican voting blocs.
Mr Santorum's political strength provided another surprise in a Republican race that seems to offer them up every week. The results had no effect on the race for the 1114 delegates required for the nomination. None of the states that had contests on Tuesday are formally awarding their delegates until later this year, when they will do so at district and state party conventions.
And it did not seem as if the evening would do anything to change the overwhelming perception that the nomination was Mr Romney's to lose — a perception reinforced through the day as his campaign and the Democratic National Committee traded charges over the administration's rule requiring religious schools and hospitals to give employees free access to birth control.
But the results were symbolically significant in a nominating contest in which momentum and perception from one election night have often reset the dynamic leading into the next battle.
Earlier, Mr Santorum predicted that the results would "change the direction of this race".
Whatever the case, Mr Santorum has been hoping to staunch the momentum that Mr Romney had from his back-to-back victories in Florida and Nevada. More important, his challenge indicated that Mr Romney still has work to do to win over the more conservative elements of his party that still appear to be seeking a more conservative option.
All three states that held contests on Tuesday have very conservative Republican electorates that are believed to include large numbers of the sort of evangelicals and Tea Party adherents who had flocked to Mr Santorum's candidacy in Iowa.
That was quite a turnabout from four years ago, when Mr Romney won in Colorado and Minnesota as the so-called conservative alternative' to the man who became the Republican nominee in 2008, John McCain.
But Mr Romney is for now, at least, expecting to do well in the elections in Arizona and Michigan later this month, as well as in the 11 Super Tuesday contests on March 6, when he is expected to use his organisational and financial advantages to maximum effect.
So the evening appeared to mete out the most punishment to Mr Gingrich.
Mr Santorum's aides argued that if the results proved anything it was that he, not Mr Gingrich, was the true conservative alternative to Mr Romney.
Mr Gingrich's campaign had dismissed the Missouri primary as a "beauty contest", and by Tuesday he appeared to have so given up on Colorado and Minnesota that he spent the day in Ohio, which votes on Super Tuesday.
Throughout the day Mr Gingrich kept his focus on Mr Romney as a "Massachusetts moderate". And, predicting that Mr Romney could finish in Colorado with 20 percentage points less of the vote than he had four years ago, he said on CNN, "After tonight you'll see this is a wide open race."
For all of its outward nonchalance, the Romney campaign was doing what it could to mitigate any damage from the night. The campaign argued that it could afford to lose some states, given that Mr McCain lost 19 on his way to nomination in 2008.
And it began the day making a case that the Tuesday results would not matter, given that no delegates were being awarded.
Mr Romney's political director, Richard Beeson, released a public memorandum saying that neither Mr Santorum nor Mr Gingrich had great options ahead.
"It is difficult to see what Governor Romney's opponents can do to change the dynamics of the race in February," he wrote, noting, for instance, that neither of them is on the ballot in the delegate-rich state of Virginia.
The New York Times
http://www.smh.com.au/world/santorum-revitalised-by-latest-results-20120208-1rcoy.html
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