Associated Press
Looking back over the last couple of months, Mitt Romney's most notable success stories usually come with a "yes, but." Did he win in New Hampshire? Yes, but Romney's practically a local. Did he score victories in Ohio and Michigan? Yes, but the margins were unimpressive and narrow. Did he crush the competition in Virginia? Yes, but no one else was on the ballot.
Fortunately for Romney, his win in Illinois is largely "yes, but" free. His 11.7% margin over Rick Santorum may not count as a blowout victory -- Romney came up short of the 50% threshold -- but it was still an impressive showing in a key state. After third-place finishes in Alabama and Mississippi last week, the former governor had reason to smile last night.
The trajectory of this race was of particular interest. Three weeks ago, Romney and Santorum were effectively tied in Illinois, and two weeks ago, Romney's lead in the polls was only four points. How'd he turn a competitive primary into a relatively easy win? By sticking to the usual playbook: he and his super PAC spent $3.7 million, mostly on attack ads, in Illinois -- about seven times what Santorum spent.
Indeed, everything about the Illinois primary seemed to fit into a rather predictable model. The race looked close early on; Romney vastly outspent his main rival; Santorum suffered from a poor organizational structure; and Romney walks away with a win in a traditionally "blue" state. If you feel like you've seen this movie before, you have, more than once.
The larger post-Illinois takeaway is how little the outcome changes the race. Romney still looks like the frontrunner; Newt Gingrich still doesn't want to quit despite another fourth-place finish; Santorum is still picking up enough delegates to at least slow Romney down. Before Illinois, it looked as if Romney wouldn't reach 1,144 delegates until May or June, and after Illinois, it still looks that way.
Given the larger dynamic of the nominating race, if Romney's easy win in Illinois were likely to give him some new momentum going into future contests, the results would be quite meaningful. But does anyone really believe Louisiana Republicans will be more likely to back Romney on Saturday because of last night's results? The odds are against it.
And so the slog continues.
Down ballot in the Land of Lincoln, freshman Rep. Adam Kinzinger defeated long-time incumbent Rep. Don Manzullo in a Republican primary in the 16th district, thanks in part to the support of Eric Cantor and the party establishment. In Illinois' 10th, businessman Brad Schneider beat former MoveOn.org organizer Ilya Sheyman in a Democratic primary by about eight points, despite the efforts to progressive activists who rallied behind Sheyman.
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This has all the elements of a never-ending soap opera. Backstories galore, everybody with a hidden agenda, and enough sub rosa sex to keep the viewers tuned in, between corporate commercials.
-Speaking of which, the MSM this AM suddenly are saying Newt and Rick are toast, time to end the campaigns. Has the word come down from the corporate mountaintop to focus on Mitt vs Obama?
As a certain folk singer said, "You don't need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
Again & again, I campaign against referring to them as the MSM! They are the Corporately Owned Media. It should not be surprising that the Corporately Owned Media have been backing the Corporately Owned Candidate and are calling for Neutered and Man-On-Dog to stop interferring with his coronation!
April's going to be almost entirely on Romney-friendly territory, though: sure wins in DC, MD, Delaware, CT, RI, and NY; Wisconsin should go like all the other Midwest states (Ohio, Michigan, Illinois) where Romney has won by vastly outspending Santorum; and Pennsylvania, which is probably Santorum's only realistic chance to win a primary in April, may well go the same way, despite being Santorum's home state.
It'll be interesting to see whether there's anything left to the Santorum campaign by the time May rolls around.
Mittens buys another primary victory.
I guess we all do what we can and Mittens can call upon extraordinary wealth for funding in his effort to buy the presidency.
Indiana has its primary early in May. I will do what I can! My Congress-Critter, who I wholeheartedly support for reelection, is running unopposed in the democratic primary. The state DINO leadership has their hand-selected DINO candidates running essentially unopposed for governor and senator. Therefore, I will vote in the repuknican primary and vote the Teabagger who is running against Lugar and I will vote for Man-On-Dog.
Why? We all do what we can to make everything as difficult as we possibly can for the repukes. Those of us without the backing of zillionaires like Mittens still can try as best we can.
Hey TRMS Posse:
In case you haven't discovered it by now, that Romney delegate named Jimmy John Liautaud is THE Jimmy John, founder of Jimmy John's sandwich shops.
Don't knock Jimmy Johns! What their sandwiches lack in quality they make up for by being over-priced! Sounds like the ideal qualifications for a RMoney backer.
Oh, snap! And another troll bites the dust. . .
Who's calling whom a troll here?
To clarify, I wasn't trying to promote or knock Jimmy John's. Just wanted to let the staff know that Mr. Liautaud isn't just some random guy from Macon County IL, but a well-known businessperson.
And I may disagree with JJ's politics, but I do grab a sandwich from one of his shops about once a month. (The choice of affordable eateries within walking distance of work is not great.)
I can't wait to read the tell-all book that comes out of THIS campaign.
What I want to know is, who was that woman in the blue pull-over standing to Rick Santorum's right on the stage in Gettysburg, Pa., last night? She is obviously one of us. Doesn't she know that Rick Santorum is no fan of the LGBT community???
Here's an interesting bit. Although the source is highly questionable, if true it is still interesting. For a guy who claims to know how to manage a business, he seems to be harboring a lot of inefficiency in his own campaign.
Romney Spends $12 Per Vote, Santorum Just $3
This morning, in our suburban newspaper, a map of Illinois was published with the areas going for each Repub candidates color coded. The more urban areas of Illinois went for Romney and the rest of the state went for Santorum. We have two states here in Illinois-Chicago and the rest of the state. The map showed beautifully the breakdown of the backing both of these candidates have received.
The media talked about the low voter turnout in Chicago, but they failed to understand that the city is heavily Dem and you would be hard pressed to find any significant amount of Republican votes. Outside of the city, there are Dem and Republican areas so voter turnout would be high. There were many areas where there was no contest for offices for either primary and this affects voter turnout.
Here in IL you never would have known there was also a Democratic primary if listened or watched the media. Even on WCPT the former Air America affiliate which airs AP radio news for their hard news update breaks from the national talkers or the local NPR affiliates. We had some pretty important congressional and state house and senate primaries on the D and got no coverage whatsoever.