2/9/12

Santorum Solidifies, Energizes Republican Base

With victories in Minnesota and Colorado, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum has emerged as a bona-fide contender and further muddled the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
There. Now that I've gotten my obligatory Santorum double-entendres out of the way, let's get down to business: as promised, an appropriate campaign button for the former senator, the guy that I felt so sure wouldn't be a factor past the first ten minutes that I didn't even bother to include him when I designed the first batch of buttons.
Rick's button, complete with catchy slogan, can be seen above.
And so much for my crystal ball, by the way. Turns out, I was clueless; the Republicans are down to their Final Four, and it's about nothing like any Final Four I predicted. Really, my "bracket" became a mess right off the bat when Rick Perry drove his Jesus Bus Full Of Cornpone over the wall on the first lap. I never thought Newt Gingrich, he of the three wives and citation for ethical violations while Speaker of the House, would survive the first cut. And it never occurred to me for an instant that Rick Santorum, the most odiously theocratic candidate I've seen in over four decades of these contests, would be taken seriously after the first primary.

Mitt Romney is still the front-runner, but he hasn't been able to shake his pursuit as yet, and has appeared to be very beatable to this point. Ron Paul is fooling himself if he thinks he's still in the race, but since inability to face reality is generally considered a virtue in the GOP, this may endear him to enough voters to continue to be an annoyance for some time. Also, he's rich.
The next test, though a feeble one, is a non-binding caucus in Maine on Saturday. The next real test, with delegates at stake, is in Michigan and Arizona on Feb. 28. Michigan will be holding a "hybrid" primary, with 30 delegates divided among the candidates in various manners in various districts, while Arizona's primary will be winner-take-all, with another 30 delegates awarded to the winner of the popular vote.
Super Tuesday, with roughly 400 delegates at stake, is March 6. It's possible that things will be pretty much sorted out that day, but the current muddle with Romney on top and Santorum hanging close behind (sorry) is beginning to look like it may last a while, possibly even right up to the convention.
We're far enough into it, though, that I figure it's time to get a little info graph going to show the delegate count, or at least the approximation currently being reported by realclearpolitics.com.  I may do some more cosmetic work on this, but the basic idea is here. Yes, those are lemmings.



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