Romney Sweeps Five

           Mitt Romney went in to the night of April 24^th knowing that he was going to win every primary that was going to be held that evening. With Rick Santorom dropping out, who was always the runner-up to Romney, or in some cases the winner of primaries, all of the power has shifted to Mitt’s campaign.

            Tuesday night held five GOP primaries, this just being the second night in April that there have been Republican primaries held. In the Connecticut primary, with twenty-five delegates at stake, Mitt won all of them and had sixty-seven percent of the vote. Seventeen delegates were up for grabs in Delaware, with Romney taking all of them, and getting fifty-six percent of the vote. He racked up all ninety-two delegates in New York while receiving sixty-three percent of the vote. No delegates were handed out in Pennsylvania, as Mitt was accounted for fifty-eight percent of the time there. Finally, in Rhode Island, Mitt won twelve of the sixteen delegates, with Ron Paul winning the other four. These were the only delegates won by a candidate besides Romney.

            So, after the dust settled on Tuesday night, Mitt had been awarded one hundred and forty-seven delegates bringing his total to eight hundred and forty-one delegates. This means that he is only three hundred and three delegates away from that magical number, 1,144, that is needed to officially win the nomination. If you want more information, here are a few websites including Romney’s campaign webpage: cnn.com, usatoday.com, and mittromney.com.      

Santorom Drops Out

This week I will be finally discussing the Wisconsin, Maryland, and the Washington D.C. primaries that took place at the beginning of the month, and then of course the decision by Rick Santorom to turn down from the GOP race.

First, to the only states that has voted in the month of April so far. On April 3^rd, Mitt Romney sweeped all three of those states, winning by seven percent over Santorom and picking up thirty-three delegates of the forty-two that were up for grabs in Wisconsin, beating Santorom by twenty percent and receiving all thirty-seven delegates available in Maryland, and getting seventy percent of the vote and winning all sixteen delegates in Washington D.C. over runner-up Ron Paul who finished with twelve percent. Rick Santorom was not on that D.C. ballot. This brought Mitt Romney to six hundred and fifty-nine total delegates by the end of the night, well over halfway to the Republican nomination.

After Easter weekend, Rick Santorom announced on April 10^th that he was stepping down from the GOP race. He left after winning eleven states and racking up two hundred and seventy-five delegates. There have been many different conclusions on why Santorom has dropped out so soon. Some analysts think it is because he wanted to avoid losing to Romney in his own home state, Pennsylvania, on April 24^th. There have been other reports that it’s because of his daughter Bella’s most recent scare with health issues, as she suffers from a rare genetic condition called Trisomy 18. Whatever the case, Rick has “suspended” his campaign after a “long weekend of prayer”. This obviously gives a wide open door to the Republican nomination for Mitt Romney who is already talking about facing President Obama in October and November. Santorom has said nothing yet about endorsing any candidate, and in fact hasn’t even talked to Romney.

The Republican nomination is everything but done, as Romney holds a five hundred and nineteen delegate lead over Newt Gingrich, and a five hundred and eighty-seven delegate lead on Ron Paul. Next week, I will be running down how the Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island primaries all went, although I think you all probably know how they will go. Once again, here are the two websites that I use for quotes among other things: cnn.com and usatoday.com. I also used newser.com this week for more information about Bella Santorom.   

More Wins For Mitt

In this week’s post, I will be giving how all of the candidates did in the Puerto Rico, Illinois, and Louisiana primaries. I will also be giving insight on how the race has been going, and who has the momentum going into the upcoming primaries in April. First, the Puerto Rico primary, which was held on March 18^th.  Mitt Romney won yet again, with maybe the biggest margin of victory of this primary season. He took a whopping eighty-three percent of the vote, and won all twenty delegates that were at stake. Rick Santorom finished in a not-very-close second, with only eight percent of the vote. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul trailed behind with two percent and one percent of the vote respectively.

 Then there was the Illinois primary on March 20^th, which had fifty-four delegates up for grabs. Mitt won again, with nearly half the votes (47%), and well over half of the delegates won (42). Santorom finished runner-up once again, with thirty-five percent of the vote and the remaining twelve delegates won. Ron Paul finished third with nine percent and Gingrich with eight. There were no delegates won by those latter two candidates.

 Finally, there was the Louisiana primary that was held last Saturday, the 24^th. With a pre-race lead in many different polls, Rick Santorom did indeed win the Bayou. Although he didn’t win many delegates, he topped Mitt by twenty-two percent by getting forty-nine percent of the vote compared to Romney’s twenty-seven. He also doubled up Romney in won delegates as he won ten, and Romney had five. So after all of the races so far, twenty-nine states have voted, and Mitt still has a big edge in the total delegates won. He has five hundred and seventy-one delegates, and Santorom has two hundred sixty-four. Those two candidates have seemed to pull away from the other two, Paul and Gingrich.

 Here are as usual, the two websites that I used for information: usatoday.com and cnn.com. Next week I will be running down the results of the Wisconsin, District of Columbia, and Maryland primaries.   

Super Tuesday Overview and More

Since I haven’t blogged for a while, I will let all of you know how the March 6^th Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses went, if you didn’t know already. I will also be giving all of the information about the Alabama and Mississippi primaries and all of the other states that have voted since my previous post. I’ll start with the biggest primary voting day of the season for the Republicans, which is Super Tuesday. Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia all voted for the Republican Party. Out of those, Mitt Romney won six, Rick Santorom won three, and Newt Gingrich took home just one lone state. Mitt’s victories included Alaska, where he edged out Santorom, and won eight delegates, one better than Santorom. He also won Idaho, winning all thirty-two delegates and getting sixty-two percent of the vote. He also won Massachusetts, the state he used to govern, winning all thirty-eight delegates and seventy-two percent of the vote. Ohio went to Mitt, edging out Santorom once again, as he only beat him by one percent (thirty-eight to thirty-seven), but won sixteen more delegates than Rick, thirty-five to nineteen. Santorom finished third in the Vermont primary, with Ron Paul finishing in second and of course Romney winning with forty percent of the vote, and getting nine delegates. Paul and Santorom each received four delegates. In Virginia, Mitt and Paul were the only ones on the ballot, as Santorom and Gingrich didn’t receive enough signatures to get on. Romney won big, getting sixty percent of the vote, and Paul with the other forty. Mitt won forty-three of the forty-six delegates, with Ron getting the other three. Rick Santorom’s wins included Tennessee where he won twelve more delegates than Romney (27-15), and getting thirty-seven percent of the vote, compared to Mitt’s twenty-eight. Newt Gingrich won the other eight delegates. The Senator also won Oklahoma by six percent over Mitt, and receiving one more delegate (14) than both Romney and Gingrich (13). Rick also won North Dakota, racking up forty percent of the vote, over runner-up Ron Paul’s twenty-eight, and getting eleven delegates, which was three better than Paul’s eight, four better than Romney’s seven, and nine more than Gingrich’s two to round out his wins for the evening. Newt Gingrich’s win was a big one that barely kept him in contention after all of the dust settled. He won a big Southern swing state, Georgia, by twenty-one percent over Romney, with forty-seven, and also won fifty-two delegates. Mitt won twenty-one, and Santorom won the remaining three, as he came in third. Overall, it was a big night for Romney and also a good night for Santorom, but not good enough. At the end of the night, Rick was still down by over a hundred delegates to Romney (He is currently ahead by 313 delegates over second-place Rick). Next was Kansas, which took place on March 10^th. Rick won big with fifty-one percent of the vote, and thirty-three pledged delegates. Romney finished in second with twenty-one percent of the vote, and also won the remaining seven delegates. Rick took that confidence into the March 13^th primaries that included two more Southern states, Alabama and Mississippi, and also Hawaii. Rick took two out of the three, as he got thirty-five percent of the vote, and eighteen delegates in Alabama, which edged out Romney and Gingrich, who each had twenty-nine percent of the vote and nine delegates won. In Mississippi, Rick had thirty-three percent of the vote, and got thirteen delegates, which was one more than both Romney and Gingrich had. Romney and Gingrich both finished with thirty-one percent of the vote. Mitt did, however, win Hawaii with forty-four percent of the vote, and also won nine delegates. Santorom came in second with twenty-five percent of the vote, and won five delegates. Ron Paul finished third, winning three delegates after getting nineteen percent of the vote. Next week I will be recapping the Puerto Rico and Illinois primaries, and tell how the Louisiana primary went. Here are again the two websites where I get all of my information came from: cnn.com/election/2012 and usatoday.com/news/politics.              

Michigan, Arizona, and Wyoming All Go to Romney

Instead of giving a preview of the Arizona and Michigan primaries on Tuesday and the Wyoming caucus on Wednesday, I will now give a complete summary on how each candidate did, and what it will mean for them moving forward. First off, the Michigan primary. Hopeful Rick Santorom had been campaigning in the state for the last two weeks, trying to win over the leader, Mitt Romney, in Romney’s own home state. Polls kept rolling in, and a good portion of them showed that Santorom was favored. However, Romney came in with a late surge, and on Tuesday night, won the primary by a very small margin. Mitt finished with 409,899 votes, giving him forty-one percent, and won sixteen of the thirty delegates. Senator Santorom finished right behind him, giving the former Massachusetts governor a good race. Rick got a respectful thirty-eight percent of the vote, for 377,521, and fourteen delegates. Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich trailed behind, with 115,712 and 65,016 respectively, and twelve and seven percent, also respectively. There were no delegates won for either of the two. Ninety-five percent of the state’s votes are estimated in. Then there was the Arizona primary, which is a winner-take-all type of primary, and in which Santorom did not campaign for at all. Romney exploded, getting a mind-boggling forty-seven percent of the vote, and 216,805 tallies, and winning all of the twenty-nine delegates the state had to offer. Santorom barely left a shadow, let alone Paul and Gingrich. Rick finished with 122,088 votes, and got twenty-seven percent of the vote. Newt finished in third, with sixteen percent of the vote, and 74,110 votes. Paul finished last, with just seven percent, and 38,753 votes. Eighty-two percent of the vote is reportedly in. Tuesday was an excellent day for Romney, proving that he could be attacked, but also could fight back. Santorom still had that cheery, enthusiastic smile on his face after he saw what the final results were at the end of the night. Moving into the extra day of February, Leap Day, all eyes moved to the small state of Wyoming, and its caucus. All of the state’s votes were in by seven P.M. that evening, and it showed yet another win for Romney. Mitt finished with a very small 822 votes, but that got him thirty-nine percent of the vote, and ten of the twenty-nine delegates. Santorom, yet again, was right behind him, getting 673 votes, thirty-two percent, and nine delegates. Ron Paul actually finished quite well, getting twenty-one percent, and 439 votes. He won six delegates. And then there was former Speaker Gingrich, who had 165 votes, eight percent, and one lone delegate. All around, I think it was a spectacular, up-lifting three-wins-in-two-days for Mitt Romney. Michigan was a small, but also big win. Arizona was a landslide victory, where he collected all of the delegates, and another slim, but good win in the small state of Wyoming. Rick Santorom has almost gotten the “shadow” character of Romney in this race, being behind him in every race this week. Santorom is now down big in the delegate race, being down one hundred three delegates to Romney. However, Super Tuesday is right around the corner, and even though it isn’t as super as some of the previous election years, it could be a big uprising for the likes of Santorom, or a big increase of likability for Mitt Romney. Whatever the case, it seems like thois has turned into a two-man race, and I will be covering it next week in my post. Here are again the links for all of my information: usatoday.com and www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2012.      

Plans for the Issues of America

This week, a mostly quiet week for the Republican candidates except for a debate held in Arizona on Wednesday, the twenty-third, I have decided to review all of the major issues that many Americans are looking for in debates and what they want from these commander-in-chief hopefuls. I will do one issue for every blog post in the coming weeks, along with the summary of the different primaries and caucuses coming up. The first issue I’m going to write about is what I think is the largest: the economy. President Obama’s campaign back in 2008 had little to none about “saving the economy”. I would know; I went to watch him speak. Times have changed so much then, as now nearly everybody’s lives have been changed in some sort of way by the downfall. The unemployment rate has skyrocketed, the foreclosures have been building up more and more, and this has led to the nation being in uncontrollable debt. The number changes by the second. I’ll start with Obama’s plan to fix this issue. Obviously he has gotten tons of heat from the Republicans on how he is steering the country in the wrong direction, and how his approval rate goes to show that. The president has helped many small-business owners and consumers with different programs, and his stimulus plan, which helped the overall economy for a short while, but has still not helped the 9.1% unemployment rate.  Obama’s real message in his campaign about the economy is that it will take years to fix it completely, and that is why he needs to be re-elected. Mitt Romney’s view and plans for the economy if he gets into the Oval Office is the “cut, cap, and balance” plan which will cut out all federal deficit spending. Current national leader Rick Santorom’s plan is reducing the corporate tax rate, and how he is against raising taxes in the crisis we as a country, are all ready in. “We need to get the economy growing. That doesn’t mean taking more money out of it that means creating energy jobs, manufacturing jobs…” According to information on his website, newt.org, Gingrich wants to make the tax cuts that Bush made permanent and eliminate capital gains tax, lower the corporate tax rate, and eliminate the estate tax. Last but not least, Senator Ron Paul’s plan is to eliminate the Federal Reserve altogether, which I think is a very bold move. Paul voted for two bills recently that will increase the debt ceiling, and bring the country back to a “gold standard”. Next week’s post will include a preview of the February twenty-eighth Michigan and Arizona Republican primaries, and the Leap Day Wyoming Republican caucus. To keep up to date on all of the latest news on the Election 2012, visit usatoday.com and cnn.com.         

Romney Wins Maine

Because this is my first post, I guess I should clarify on what this blog is going to be about. My goal in writing this blog is giving my different opinions on one large topic: the 2012 presidential election. I will write mostly about the Republican Party to see who gets the nomination, and face President Obama for the next presidential administration. Last Saturday included the Republican Maine caucus and the Republican CPAC straw poll, which were both big, but slim wins for the former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Coming off a disappointing Tuesday where he lost three states (Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado) to Senator Rick Santorom, Romney got thirty-nine percent of the state’s votes, edging out Senator Ron Paul, who had thirty-five percent. With that victory, Romney won eleven delegates and Paul with a respectable ten. Santorom and former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich pulled up the trail with seventeen and six percent respectively. The other thing I gave point to in my introduction was the Republican Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll. When Mitt Romney campaigned in 2008 and eventually lost, he did not come out with a conservative campaign. This election however, he has tried, but few have really believed that he will lead the country with a conservative mind. The campaign trail moves on now to Arizona and Michigan which will take place on February 28^th, and then the Wyoming caucus on Leap Day, the 29^th. As of February 16^th, Rick Santorom is ahead of Romney in early polls in Michigan, a state where Romney was born and one that he won when he went for president back in 2008. Santorom has even come up with an ad that is being aired nearly every 1,000 commercials. In my mind, I think it’s pretty clever. It portrays a reverse angle of a person who looks like Romney, and a cardboard figure of Santorom. The actor that plays Romney then holds up a shotgun, shoots it, and it sprays mud that flies wide right of the cardboard Santorom, to signify Rick’s slogan for the ad, “Mitt is Missing”. Till then, the trail will be pretty quiet, with no debates (a disadvantage for Speaker Gingrich, who is winning delegates because of his rather feisty attitude during the debates) for Republicans to talk about. However, the candidates continue to campaign, across the country, as there’s less than a month before Super Tuesday, where nine states will be holding their Republican caucuses and primaries.  For more on Election 2012, you can go to usatoday.com or cnn.com. Also, if you want to learn more about any of the Republican candidates, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorom, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul, here are their websites in the order I just addressed: mittromney.com; ricksantorom.com; newt.org; and ronpaul2012.com.