The answers are:The only suspense tonight is how wide a margin of victory will Mitt enjoy, can Paul hold off Newt for third place, and will Newt's percent of the vote nudge over into double digits.
The margin was 12% ahead of Santorum.Yes, Paul did hold off Newt, who finished in 4th place.No, Newt did not nudge into double digits. He got 8% of the vote.
Santorum had predicted that it would be an Act of God if he won Illinois -- his strong suit is to be in Wisconsin. Newt hopes to win Louisiana.
Looks like God decided not to act, at least not in Santorum's favor -- despite all those preachers "laying their hands on Rick" and praying for God to favor him.
But this Illinois big win for Mitt helps solidify his position. And the big guns are beginning to rally round. Karl Rove's big super PAC's donors are said to be ready to start giving to Romney. And Jeb Bush just announced his endorsement of Romney.
Meanwhile, Romney's top adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory for another week with an unfortunate metaphor.
He was asked whether the candidacies of Santorum and Gingrich have forced Romney to shift so far to the right in the primary that it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election. Fehrnstrom said:
Oops. An unfortunate choice for someone already accused of having no core principles, of flip flopping to say whatever the voters of the moment want to hear."Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch a Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again."
This was at first interpreted that Fehrnstrom meant Romney's platform was like an Etch a Sketch. He later clarified that he meant the voters' mindset and their images of the candidate.
Either way, not good.
But he will weather it. What else do they have? Santorum? Gingrich?
It will be Romney. Or . . . someone else at the convention.
But expect to hear a lot about Etch a Sketch in the coming months.
Ralph
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