Where Stands the Race?

Romney can win, but he's now anything but inevitable.

by Rod D. Martin
February 8, 2012

WHERE STANDS THE RACE? Quite simply, Mitt Romney is now anything but inevitable.

First, it's important to understand what didn't happen yesterday. Rick Santorum ran mostly against...no one. Neither frontrunner (Newt or Mitt) contested any of yesterday's three states. They literally didn't show up, much less meaningfully compete (Newt, for instance, spent all of yesterday in Ohio). And if they both had, each of these states probably would have looked like Nevada.

What's more, these were relatively high-cost, low-benefit races. Missouri's "primary" was a beauty contest which awarded precisely zero delegates: those will be selected at a later caucus, more than a month from now. Minnesota and Colorado were seen as locks for Romney (based on a variety of factors) and not worth contesting given the need to marshall resources for Super Tuesday.

At least that was the reasoning going in.

What Rick Santorum did last night is prove the truth of the old adage that 90% …