Monday, March 05, 2012

The Next Round

Well, here we go again. Tomorrow is "Super Tuesday," a day in which ten states hold primaries or caucuses and an eleventh begins its caucus procedure. Dan Balz has a rather nice analysis of the GOP nomination race for tomorrow.

The Republican presidential campaign arrives at a potentially pivotal moment Tuesday, with contests in 10 states that should provide the most definitive clues to date about the possible length of the race and whether anybody has a genuine chance of preventing Mitt Romney from winning the GOP nomination. ...

Although there are primaries and caucuses all over the country on Super Tuesday, much of the attention is focused on Ohio, a critical general-election swing state and the most contested of the primaries that day. There, Romney and Santorum are engaged in a rematch of their closely fought battle a week earlier in Michigan.


Balz makes it clear that it is unlikely that one candidate will sweep all of the states, especially given the different states' rules for the distribution of delegates, but he does raise some very salient points as to what each of the candidates must do tomorrow.

Romney needs to emerge as the overall winner if he hopes to prove he is the genuine front-runner. Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania, wants to show that the GOP race is a two-person contest and that he has the political appeal to win. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich needs a victory in Georgia to justify continuing his candidacy. Paul needs a breakthrough that has eluded him all year.

Balz also points out which states each of the candidates wants to do well in, and gives very solid reasons for it all. In fact, the article is so helpful that I may just keep it along side the computer on Tuesday night.

Hopefully, this Tuesday night I will be a bit more sensible and not stay glued to the computer screen well past my bed time. Besides, I'm getting low on popcorn, and this promises to be a long slog.

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