2012 Election: Republican Candidates

[Washington Post]

Posted By Sophia Jones
Friday, October 7, 2011 - 3:54 PM

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney told an audience at a South Carolina military college this morning that his presidency would herald "an American century," calling for an additional 100,000 active duty personnel, an increased defense budget, and stronger U.S.-Israeli relations. While many of the GOP Tea Party views align with Romney's presidential campaign, a new poll conducted by the Pew Research Center points to some glaring discrepancies within the Tea Party that may prove deadly for Romney next November.

In many areas, to be sure, Romney fulfills his reputation as a weathervane for Republican politics. In his speech, Romney raised the specter that Israel will feel "isolated by a hostile international community," and that "those who seek Israel's destruction [will] feel emboldened by American ambivalence." Pew found that 68 percent of Tea Party voters feel Obama favors the Palestinians too much, and that over half consider government stability in Middle Eastern countries of the utmost importance, even if it means less democracy.

Tea Party Republicans also appear receptive to Romney's calls for a strong military, with 60 percent stating military strength as the best way to ensure peace. But while while Tea Partiers want to maintain U.S. military strength, they don't want to pay for it: 78 percent of Tea Party Republicans want to keep spending at current levels, or cut it back. On this issue, Romney -- who seeks to increase defense spending to 4 percent of GDP -- appears out of tune with the GOP base.

Romney also made clear his skepticism about Obama's planned withdrawal from Afghanistan, indicating his intention to consult military officials who have voiced concern over the rate of U.S. troop pullout. While 66 percent of GOP Tea Party voters feel it is unlikely that Afghanistan can maintain a stable government after U.S. troops leave, they appear to be split on the issue of whether to keep troops in Afghanistan until the situation has stabilized: 55 percent agree with staying, and 42 percent lean toward leaving as soon as possible. A similar split exists on the issue of reducing military commitments overseas: 55 percent of Tea Partiers approve of reducing troops overseas to help lower the national debt, and 44 percent disagree.

As Romney made clear today, his presidency would eschew the isolationist inclinations of some in the Tea Party in favor of the muscular interventionism of the George W. Bush era. But whether that's what Americans will vote for come November 2012 is another story.

[Fox]

By John Stimpson
Published October 08, 2011

I first met Mitt Romney in 1994. At the time I was working for the Republican Leader of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Mr. Romney was running against the state’s most senior Democrat, US Senator Edward Kennedy, and dropped by our office at the State House in Boston to introduce himself to some Republican legislators.

This was his first political race. When he walked into the room, no one recognized him. Most candidates for statewide office are current or former politicians, but Mr. Romney, who had spent his career in the private sector, was an outsider with little name recognition among voters and no grass roots political organization.

Despite his lack of campaign experience, he proved to be a formidable challenger, defying most people’s expectations. Senator Kennedy won the race but by the smallest margin in his re-election career.

Mr. Romney has journeyed a long way since he introduced himself to Massachusetts voters in 1994. Now he is running for president of the United States. At a time when economic insecurity will be the paramount issue for voters, he is the Republican Party’s best chance to win the White House in 2012.

Not since Jimmy Carter was president has there been such a crisis of confidence in America. Unemployment remains above 9 percent. Our debt-to-GDP ratio is more than 95%, a trajectory that is unsustainable.

Standard & Poor’s recently downgraded the country’s coveted AAA credit rating. And our elected leaders continue to kick the can down the road on reforming Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the country’s three major budget-busters.

To combat the multitude of complex leadership, financial, and operational problems facing the Federal government, the next president will need to wear three leadership hats – chief executive officer, chief financial officer and chief operations officer.

Mr. Romney has experience in all three “C-level” functions. He spent the bulk of his career in the private sector at Bain Capital, a Boston-based private equity firm that he founded. His job was to identify and invest in start-up companies, such as Staples and Domino’s Pizza.

But another big part of what he did was to invest in distressed companies, turn them around and make them profitable. This involved rebuilding management teams, improving company processes, identifying new products and markets, fixing balance sheets, and implementing other strategic changes to unlock value in these troubled companies.

One of Mr. Romney’s most notable turnaround situations was the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games. In 1999, he was asked to take over as president and CEO of the Games, which was in the midst of a bribery scandal and on the verge of financial collapse. He reorganized the management team, brought back disgruntled corporate sponsors, balanced the budget, and restored public confidence in the organization.

Why is his turnaround experience important in this presidential race? Today, there is no greater turnaround situation than fixing the federal government. The to-do list is extensive: reduce debt, balance the budget, fix entitlement programs, reform cumbersome tax codes and regulations, lower the costs of doing business for American companies, and open up markets for our goods and services around the world.

In the private sector, Mr. Romney’s goal was to increase shareholder value. While the federal government is not a publicly held corporation, he brings a real world business approach to Washington that is badly needed to get the country’s fiscal house in order and improve the value of government programs as measured by their cost and effectiveness.

But the toughest task will be coming up with bold ideas to revitalize an economy on the brink of another recession. Economic challenges in the US, weak global GDP growth and sovereign debt issues in the euro zone have escalated the importance of electing a president who understands the language of business and the global economy.

In this realm, Mr. Romney has the credibility and poise to lead as few others do because he has worked directly with small and large businesses and their management teams across diverse industries throughout the world.

As he stated during the recent Republican presidential debate in Tampa, Florida, “The American people create jobs, not government.”

Having put capital at risk, both his own and that of his investors, he knows firsthand the obstacles and pressures that businesses face in a global economy and how government can be a partner, not an adversary, in helping America compete.

Mr. Romney spent most of his career in the trenches of business, but he is also battle-tested in government. In 2002 he was elected governor of Massachusetts at a time when the state faced tremendous fiscal challenges. Despite taking office when there were just 23 Republicans in the 160 member House of Representatives and six Republicans in the 40 member Senate, he successfully restructured government programs, consolidated state services, reduced wasteful spending, and otherwise closed a $3 billion budget shortfall without raising taxes or borrowing from Wall Street.

What makes Mr. Romney most appealing as a candidate in a general election, however, is his ability to attract independent voters, which will be a key voting bloc in swing states.

As a Republican in Massachusetts, his election as governor was not a foregone conclusion. He defeated his Democratic opponent in one of the most liberal states in the country where Republicans comprised just 13% of voters. The bulk of voters (49%) were independents.

Mr. Romney has proven that he can appeal to a broad cross section of voters. Independents are especially tired of the business as usual polarization between Republicans and Democrats in Washington. Without the support of these more moderate voters, the Republican Party cannot expect to win the White House in 2012.

There is no perfect GOP candidate who will satisfy all Republicans. The challenge for the Republican Party is to see the forest for the trees. At a time when jobs and the economy will be the two overriding issues among voters, the focus in this presidential election will be who is best qualified to turn America around and get the economy back on track. That candidate is Mitt Romney.

John B. Stimpson served as an aide to former Massachusetts Governor William F. Weld. He lives in New York City.

[Do Do]

By Tom Curry, msnbc.com National Affairs Writer
Updated at 11:03 p.m. ET

In the sixteenth debate of the 2012 campaign in South Carolina Monday night, Mitt Romney emerged with a steady if unspectacular performance, fending off criticism from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich over his tenure as head of Bain Capital.

But under pressure from Texas Gov. Rick Perry and from one of the debate moderators, Romney sounded a bit vague and elusive on precisely when he would release his tax returns.

“We cannot fire our nominee in September -- we need to know now” if he has any vulnerabilities, Perry said. Romney said he would "probably" release his tax returns in April. By that point he may have locked up the GOP nomination. Saturday’s South Carolina primary is likely to be the decisive event of the GOP presidential campaign.

The other contenders all had their moments of prominence. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich did not back off from his criticism of Romney’s tenure as head of Bain Capital – but he also did not add any new details to his indictment of Romney.

“I raised questions I think are legitimate questions” Gingrich said. “That’s part of a what a campaign is about” -- to raise questions “before you get a to a general election.”

He said that there was “a pattern in some companies” that Bain invested in of “leaving them with enormous debt” and then bankrupt.

Perry also joined the attack on Romney for Bain’s investment in a steel mill in South Carolina. “Bain swept in” and “they picked that company over and a lot of people lost jobs there," Perry said.

Romney responded that it was cheap foreign steel imports that had caused the problems at the South Carolina steel mill and other mills.

Romney also said that four of the Bain-sponsored companies had added 120,000 jobs to the economy. He added that Bain had invested in well over 100 different businesses. “I had experience turning around tough situations,” he said, and that, he said, is what led to him being asked to run the Salt Lake City Olympics and to run for governor of Massachusetts.

Santorum, too, pressed the attack on Romney and seemed to catch him in an awkward spot when he charged that Romney’s own state had a more liberal law allowing convicted felons to vote than a felon voting law that Santorum had voted for in 2002 when he served in the Senate.

And yet, Santorum said, a Romney-allied group was attacking him for that vote. Romney replied that he believed that people convicted of violent felonies should not be able to vote, but that Democrats controlled the state legislature in Massachusetts.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas got a wave of hostility from the debate audience when he was asked about the killing of Osama bin Laden and argued that even Saddam Hussein and Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann were captured and were put on trial – rather than killed.

Raucous booing followed when Paul tried to argue for a Golden Rule in foreign affairs, “Don’t do to other nations what we don’t want them to do to us.”

Earlier in the debate, Gingrich hit President Obama with harsh rhetoric, calling him "the best food stamp president in American history." He said the difference between the GOP candidates and Obama was that "we actually think work is good," implying that Obama wanted unemployed people to remain dependent on public benefits.

The dramatic highlight of the debate may have come about an hour into the event when Gingrich got into a tussle with Fox News panelist Juan Williams, who asked about Gingrich advocating that young people get janitorial jobs.

“Only the elites despise earning money,” Gingrich snapped.

Williams then asked whether Gingrich’s “food stamp president” comment about Obama was an example of him “seeking to belittle people.”

Gingrich shot back a heated response, charging that “more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than by any president in American history.”

Earlier Monday, Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor and former envoy to China, announced that he was withdrawing from the race, having suffered a weak third-place finish on Tuesday in New Hampshire. Huntsman threw his support to Romney, calling him “the candidate who is best-equipped to defeat the president and return conservative leadership to the White House.”

Gingrich said Monday that if he wins the primary, he will win the Republican nomination: “South Carolina is going to pick the nominee.”

With Paul getting support from libertarians and those who like his anti-interventionist foreign policy, that leaves the social conservative vote split among Gingrich, Perry, and Santorum. None of the three has been strong enough to unite the conservative factions.

[Do Do]

From CNN:

Final Florida push begins after contentious debate



Jacksonville, Florida (CNN) -- Republican presidential hopefuls headed into the homestretch of the critical Florida primary campaign Friday after a riveting debate that analysts believe gave Mitt Romney a boost over fellow front-runner Newt Gingrich.

Florida voters will decide Tuesday who gets the biggest delegate haul so far of the GOP presidential race, and the CNN/Republican Party of Florida debate provided the four candidates with their final chance to face one another on the same stage in the increasingly vitriolic contest.

Romney and Gingrich entered Thursday's debate in a statistical dead-heat for the lead, according to recent polling, with former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul trailing well back.

Paul, who concedes he has no chance of victory in Florida's winner-take-all primary, heads to more moderate Maine on Friday to campaign for the caucus that begins February 4, while Romney, Gingrich and Santorum all planned events in Florida to begin their final push for Tuesday's primary.

Needing a strong showing to try to blunt Gingrich's harsh attacks of recent days, Romney was forceful and had the former House speaker on his heels on some issues.

At the same time, Santorum had his strongest debate performance so far, coming across as a sincere and committed candidate who would best represent conservative principles.

"Romney won two ways tonight," said CNN contributor and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos. "One, by having a good debate and two by having Santorum have his best debate yet."

Romney appeals to the more moderate wing of the Republican Party while Santorum and Gingrich are competing for the conservative vote. If Santorum can build support, it would hurt Gingrich as the primary process continues.

Paul also had a good night, repeatedly prompting laughter and applause with self-deprecating one-liners and clear messaging about his libertarian policies that excite young supporters.

The focus, though, was on the two leaders. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, provided his most forceful and unapologetic statement so far about his vast personal wealth, saying Republicans such as Gingrich shouldn't criticize him for being successful.

Romney released his tax returns this week under pressure from Gingrich and others, revealing he paid a rate of less than 15% on income in the millions, mostly from investments including some holdings in offshore accounts.

Gingrich had disparaged Romney's wealth on the campaign trail, saying he lived in a world of "Swiss bank and Cayman Island bank accounts" and did nothing for his money. Romney previously seemed uncomfortable discussing his finances, initially stalling on releasing his tax records, but he was ready Thursday.

"I think it's important for people to make sure we don't castigate individuals who have been successful and try to suggest there's something wrong with being successful and having investments and having a return on those," Romney said.

Addressing Gingrich directly, he said: "You indicated that somehow I didn't earn that money."

"I have earned the money that I have," Romney continued. "I didn't inherit it. Those investments lead to jobs being created in America. I'm proud of being successful. I'm proud of being in the free enterprise system. I'm not going to run away from that."

On the tax rate issue, Romney noted that combining taxes paid and charitable contributions equaled about 40% of his income, and added to applause: "Let's put behind this idea of attacking me because of my money and lets get Republicans to say, you know what, what you've accomplished in your life shouldn't be seen as a detriment but an asset to help America."

Other exchanges were just as compelling.

Asked to address the housing crisis, one of the major problems facing Florida voters, Gingrich began by claiming that Romney was knowingly and "unfairly" attacking him on his consulting record for mortgage giant Freddie Mac, sparking a fiery back-and-forth over which candidate has had a closer relationship with troubled lenders.

Gingrich claimed Romney had profited off of investments in both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In turn, Romney explained his holdings were in a blind trust and involved mutual funds that included bonds of the mortgage lenders.

Then he turned the tables on Gingrich, pointing out that Gingrich also had similar investments involving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which prompted a crowd response.

CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen gave that round to Romney, saying Gingrich threw a punch and Romney "came back and caught him unexpected."

Trying to widen what was becoming a two-man debate, moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Santorum and Paul if they believed any profits earned from investing in the government-backed entities should be returned.

"That subject doesn't really interest me," Paul replied to laughter, while Santorum sounded exasperated in calling for a halt to what he labeled "petty personal politics" that distracted from more important issues.

"Can we set aside that Newt was a member of Congress and used the skills that he developed as a member of Congress to go out and advise companies -- and that's not the worst thing in the world -- and that Mitt Romney is a wealthy guy because he worked hard and he's going out and working hard?" Santorum said.

Later, though, Santorum launched the toughest attack of the night on Romney in an extended back-and-forth over the health care plan Romney got passed in Massachusetts that in some ways served as model for the federal health care reform under the Obama administration.

Positioning himself as the strongest opponent of the health care law, Santorum insisted both the Romney plan and the federal plan included a mandate to own health insurance or face a fine -- a concept detested by conservatives.

He repeatedly returned to that point when Romney tried to argue the difference between a state plan for Massachusetts and a federal plan for the entire country, saying at one point: "Your mandate is no different than Barack Obama's mandate."

Throughout the debate, the audience was more vocal than during the previous Florida debate on Monday, when attendees were asked to hold their applause. Gingrich complained after the Monday debate against denying spectators the right to express themselves.

Also in contrast to Monday was Romney's approach, standing casually with a hand in his pocket for most of the two hours while responding with force to Gingrich salvos.

Afterward, Romney pronounced himself delighted with the debate, saying he thought it would give him a boost.

"When I'm shot at I'll return fire," he said. "I'm no shrinking violet."

Early in the evening, Romney drew frequent applause when he pushed back attacks by Gingrich over immigration.

Gingrich called Romney the most anti-immigrant candidate on the debate stage, repeating a charge in a campaign ad Gingrich eventually pulled after a complaint it was unfair by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.

Romney responded with outrage, accusing Gingrich of using "highly-charged epithets" irresponsibly and denying he wants to deport all of the nation's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.

However, Gingrich and Santorum also agreed with Romney that at least some illegal immigrants would be likely to "self-deport" if the government were to crack down on employers who hired illegal immigrants. All three men advocated a system of identification for immigrants that would help employers verify an employee's legal status.

Before the debate, Gingrich told an audience on Florida's Space Coast, hit hard by the end of the space shuttle program, that he would build a colony on the moon by the end of his second term in office -- a plan that found little support among his rivals on stage.

Santorum said the nation's debt crisis was too severe to consider such proposals, while Romney called the idea deeply flawed.

Citing his business experience, Romney said that if an executive had come to him suggesting spending "billions" of dollars on a colony on the moon, "I'd say 'You're fired.'"

Earlier in the day, Gingrich lashed out at Romney, accusing him of engaging in sleazy negative politics and being part of a fragile establishment desperate to stop the former House speaker from winning the GOP nomination.

One of Romney's most prominent supporters, former GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole, released a statement through the Romney campaign that characterized Gingrich as erratic, unreliable and certain to lead the Republican Party to defeat in November.

When Gingrich was in Congress, he "was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway," said Dole, a former U.S. senator from Kansas. As speaker, Gingrich "had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall. ... Democrats are spending millions of dollars running negative ads against Romney as they are hoping that Gingrich will be the nominee."

According to a CNN/Time/ORC International survey released Wednesday, 36% of people likely to vote in Tuesday's primary say they are backing Romney, with 34% supporting Gingrich. Romney's margin over Gingrich is well within the survey's sampling error. Santorum was at 11% and Paul at 9%, with 7% undecided.

Gingrich received a boost in the polls after his double-digit victory in Saturday's South Carolina primary, but Wednesday's CNN poll and another by the American Research Group indicate that his momentum might be waning.

CNN's Tom Cohen, John Helton, Alan Silverleib and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

[Do Do]

From AP:

Tired and broke, Santorum heads home to do taxes

By PHILIP ELLIOTT | Associated Press

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (AP) — Rick Santorum is tired, almost broke — and going home.

The former Pennsylvania senator is taking a pause from Florida campaigning just days before the Tuesday primary that even he expects to deal him a third consecutive loss.

Santorum says he would rather spend his Saturday sitting at his kitchen table doing his taxes than campaigning in a state where the race for the Republican presidential nomination has become a two-man fight between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.

The cash-strapped candidate acknowledges that he simply can't keep up with the GOP front-runners in Florida.

"We're going to talk about the Constitution and talk about being a strong conservative," Santorum said at an event here this week. "And that's all we can do."

Outside advisers are urging him to pack up in Florida completely and not spend another minute in a state where he is cruising toward a loss. But Santorum insisted on Friday that he would return once he has readied his taxes for public release.

"I'm coming back within 24 hours, and I'm here through up to election day," Santorum told Fox News. "I've spent every minute here in Florida, and I'm going to work in Florida."

Santorum has yet to announce his schedule for Florida's primary day. He says it was a mistake for him to remain in South Carolina on its voting day.

"We can't let grass grow," he told reporters Thursday. "South Carolina Election Day was sort of a wasted day for us."

He pledged to continue his campaign regardless of the Florida outcome.

It's a grim period for Santorum, who just three weeks ago was riding high on a strong finish in the Iowa caucuses; after first saying the result was a virtual tie with Romney, the Iowa GOP ultimately declared Santorum the winner. The victory was short-lived. He lost big in both New Hampshire and South Carolina.

He faced an uphill battle even before the race turned to Florida. He doesn't have the money to spend on television ads in Florida's expensive media markets. He couldn't compete with the thousands-strong crowds his rivals have been drawing. And he wasn't able to find a moment here that crystalized the rationale for his candidacy.

"Other candidates tell you they need your help," Santorum told Florida Republicans this week, almost pleading. "They're lying. I really need your help."

But help didn't come — at least in this state — for a candidate who is visibly exhausted and running on, at most, four hours of sleep each night.

So Santorum is going home to Pennsylvania, which he represented in the Senate, and Virginia, where he lives with his wife and seven children, to get some rest and, he says, prepare his own taxes. He also plans fundraisers in both states as he works to rebuild his campaign account to pay for upcoming contests in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado.

Santorum also is looking at Arizona and Michigan, states that vote at the end of February — if he makes it that far.

His inner circle of advisers is looking at the campaign checkbook. They say they can keep a lean campaign rolling in case Gingrich or Romney implode.

"This race is just starting. It's a three-man race," Santorum insists. "We're going to be in this race for the long term."

For now, at least, polls show Santorum dramatically trailing in Florida, the largest and most diverse state in the early nominating schedule. And he seems to be coming up short as he tries to win over voters with his everyman persona.

"I wish he had a little more passion in the belly," said Don Waldt, a Punta Gorda retiree who attended a Santorum rally at dusk this week. "He is conservative and authentic. But he isn't on top and doesn't seem to have a clear path to the top."

[Do Do]

From Washington Post:

Gingrich professes shock at Romney’s ‘dishonest’ debate performance


View Photo Gallery —  After what was widely considered an unfocused and bloated campaign in 2008, the Republican former Massachusetts governor is returning to the presidential sweepstakes with a more tightly knit team.

By Amy Gardner and Philip Rucker, Updated: Friday, January 27, 1:03 PM

MIAMI —Former House speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday that the reason he seemed less combative during Thursday’s televised debate was that he was shocked by what he described as rival Mitt Romney’s “totally dishonest” replies to several questions.

In a telephone interview, Gingrich cited Romney’s remarks on immigration, his vote for Democrat Paul Tsongas in 1992 and whether he knew about an ad his campaign is running against Gingrich.

“I think it’s the most blatantly dishonest performance by a presidential candidate I’ve ever seen,” Gingrich said. At several moments during the debate, Gingrich simply leaned away from his lectern and looked down at his feet because he was so stunned by some of Romney’s statements, he said. He didn’t engage Romney at the time, he said, because “I wanted to fact check. I wanted to make sure he was as totally dishonest as I thought he was.”

Gingrich spoke as a new poll from Quinnipiac University showed Romney back on top in Florida’s high-stakes Republican primary, adding to the momentum for the former Massachusetts governor following a strong debate performance Thursday night.

He claimed victory in the debate as he playfully told supporters at a Friday afternoon rally in Cape Canaveral, “Battling was fun, and battling was won.”

Romney went on the offensive against Gingrich on topics including immigration, taxes and wealth, lobbying, and colonizing the moon. Romney said it was “repulsive” for the former House speaker to label him “the most anti-immigrant” candidate in the field. He blasted Gingrich’s moon proposal, saying that if a business executive had brought it to him, his response would have been, “You’re fired.” He goaded his rival into a discussion of his own taxes.

Seeking to capi­tal­ize on his gains, Romney reached out forcefully to Hispanic Republicans here Friday, saying he would champion political and economic freedom in Cuba and throughout Latin America.

Romney sought to woo Florida’s influential bloc of Cuban-American and other Hispanic Republican voters four days before the state’s critical primary. He promoted his immigration and foreign-policy agenda, and he used particularly tough language to describe his stance against Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

In Cambridge, Md., meanwhile, President Obama rallied House Democrats at an annual issues conference, urging them to prepare for a “robust debate” with Republicans during this election year, while also looking for opportunities to cooperate.

“It’s going to be a tough election, because a lot of people are still hurting out there, and a lot of people have lost faith generally about the capacity of Washington to get anything done,” Obama said. But whenever “the other side is putting some politics aside for just a nanosecond in order to get something done for the American people, we’ve got to be right there ready to meet them,” he added.

“On the other hand, where they obstruct, where they’re unwilling to act, where they’re more interested in party than they are in country, more interested in the next election than the next generation, then we’ve got to call them out on it.... We’ve got to push them. We can’t wait. We can’t be held back.”

Obama did not mention any Republicans by name.

Gingrich has lost much of the momentum he brought to Florida after his landslide victory in South Carolina a week ago, and Romney’s strong performance in Thursday’s debate didn’t help.

Gingrich sought to retrieve that momentum in part with his aggressive stand on Romney’s debate performance, which he also described at length in an interview with Sean Hannity that will air on Fox News later Friday. In addition, his campaign began airing a new TV ad called, “What kind of man?” It features a quote from former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee: “If a man’s dishonest to get a job, he’ll be dishonest on the job.”

Huckabee disavowed the ad Friday. “Any use of an out-of-context quote from the Republican presidential primary four years ago in a political ad to advocate for the election or defeat of another candidate is not authorized, approved, or known in advance by me,” he said in a statement. “I have made it clear that I have not and do not anticipate making an endorsement in the GOP primary, but will support the nominee.”

Gingrich also intensified his pitch to the Hispanic community Friday by promising to let Puerto Rico vote on the question of statehood. At a convention of the National Hispanic Leadership Network, he also held a news conference with about a dozen Hispanic leaders, including four who his campaign said had previously supported Romney. In an open letter to Romney, the group wrote: “Without an open dialogue with us, you are unable to understand issues important to the Latino community.”

The Romney campaign said none of the four supported the former Massachusetts governor this year. Additionally, none of them are from Florida. They are Vinicio Madrigal, a former chairman of the Louisiana Republican Hispanic Assembly; Joe Galvan and Massey Villarreal, both former chairmen of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly; and Jacob Monty, a former national Hispanic chairman for George W. Bush.

Romney picked up the endorsement Friday of Puerto Rico’s governor, Luis Fortuño, a rising star in the Republican Party and a potential asset in the quest for Latino votes.

In the telephone interview, Gingrich said he was affronted by Romney’s statements during the debate on illegal immigration. The statements, he said, have swung widely from accusing Gingrich last year of being in favor of amnesty to, last night, agreeing with Gingrich’s support for letting long-standing illegal immigrants obtain legal residency.

“I’m not going to go find grandmothers and take them out of their homes and deport them,” Romney said during the debate, which was hosted by CNN. “Those are your words, not my words. And to use that rhetoric suggests to people that somehow, if you’re not willing to keep people here who violated the law, that you’re anti- immigrant. Nothing could be further from the truth. “

Gingrich also said Romney was lying when he said he didn’t know about an ad his campaign is running that accuses Gingrich of calling Spanish a “ghetto” language. The former speaker charged that Romney also lied when he explained that the only reason he voted for Tsongas in the 1992 Democratic presidential primary was because there was not a Republican contest that year.

“I’ve never voted for a Democrat when there was a Republican on the ballot,” Romney said. “And and in my state of Massachusetts, you could register as an independent and go vote in whichever primary happens to be very interesting. And any chance I got to vote against Bill Clinton or Ted Kennedy, I took.”

Romney’s campaign did not immediately respond to the accusation from Gingrich, but Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), a Romney supporter who is following Gingrich across Florida this week to rebut the former House speaker whenever he can, said: “I think Governor Romney has been very consistent overall on the issue of immigration. And he pointed out very aptly last night, I think, that the problem is not 11 million grandmothers. Mitt Romney has been very adamant that we need a fix on illegal immigration. It’s a good, solid, conservative position. I don’t see where the speaker thinks you can make inroads on a changing position. I just don’t see it.”

In his speech Friday to the Hispanic Leadership Network conference, Romney said: “There is a time coming soon where Cuba will be free. That’s gonna happen. But we’re gonna have to get organized for it. We’re gonna have to recognize that people there want freedom, as people do all over the world, and America can’t sit back.” His comments drew a loud, standing ovation from a crowd of several hundred.

If elected president, Romney said he would appoint an envoy responsible for democracy and freedom in Latin America, who would measure progress of each nation reaching toward freedom and help keep nations from “falling in line behind [Venezuelan President Hugo] Chavez and Castro.”

“I want to protect legal immigration,” Romney said. “I would like to expand legal immigration.... We are not anti-immigrant. We are not anti-immigration. We are the pro-immigration, pro-legality, pro-citizenship nation and party.”

In his roughly 20 minute speech, Romney did not mention Gingrich at all, even though the former speaker addressed the same audience less than an hour beforehand. But in her remarks, Romney’s wife, Ann, seemed to draw a subtle contrast with Gingrich, going further and speaking with more urgency than she usually does on the stump.

“What needs to be done needs to be done by someone that knows how to do it,” Ann Romney said. “You can’t have someone turn something around if they’ve never turned around anything before. You can’t have someone run an organization if they’ve never run an organization before. We tried that the last time with someone that didn’t have any experience, and how is that working?”

In Thursday night’s debate, Gingrich declared that he has bigger ideas and a greater willingness to shake up Washington than his rivals do, but he did not have the kind of dominating performance that marked his appearances in two South Carolina debates. He protested when Romney hit him, saying, “You’re very quick to draw the widest possible exaggeration.” He said he is a more natural heir to the legacy of Ronald Reagan.

Romney, who struggled in the South Carolina forums, also performed well at a debate in Tampa on Monday. He is stepping up at a critical moment in the Florida campaign.

The Quinnipiac poll, conducted Jan. 24 to 26, shows Romney leading Gingrich 38 percent to 29 percent among likely GOP voters in Florida. A poll taken days earlier showed and released Wednesday showed Romney barely ahead of Gingrich, 36 percent to 34 percent.

At the same time, a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released Friday showed Gingrich leading Romney nationally, 37 percent to 28 percent.

Underscoring the topsy-turvy nature of the primary race, however, the same poll showed Romney doing significantly better than Gingrich when voters were asked to chose between either of them and President Obama.

The tension between the two contenders was evident throughout Thursday evening, confirming how significant the next several days could be in the race. Gingrich arrived in Florida hoping to build on his come-from-behind victory in South Carolina, but has been pummeled this week by attacks from Romney and his surrogates.

The friction between Romney and Gingrich overshadowed another strong debate performance Thursday night by former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) and several lively comments from Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.).

Yet, Paul and Santorum trailed far behind their two rivals in the latest Quinnipiac poll, drawing 14 percent and 12 percent support respectively.

Santorum, cash-strapped and tired, decided to take a break from campaigning in Florida and return home later Friday to Pennsylvania, where he planned to spend Saturday doing his taxes at his kitchen table, the Associated Press reported. He said he would then come back to Florida and stay through primary day and would continue his campaign regardless of the outcome. He also plans to hold fundraisers in Pennsylvania and Virginia in the days ahead.

“This race is just starting,” Santorum said, according to AP. “It’s a three-man race. We’re going to be in this race for the long term.”

Staff writers Rosalind S. Helderman in Florida and Debbi Wilgoren and William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.

[Do Do]

From AFP:

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney addresses the Hispanic Leadership Network at Doral Golf Resort in Miami. Romney has stepped up his campaign in Florida after a new opinion poll showed he was gaining momentum in a race against archrival Newt Gingrich. (AFP Photo/Emmanuel Dunand)

By Andrew Beatty | AFP

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney stepped up his campaign in Florida Saturday after a new opinion poll showed he was gaining momentum in a race against archrival Newt Gingrich.

With only three days to go until the vital Florida primary, the two rivals barnstormed the huge battleground state which could prove a make-or-break stop in their battle for the Republican Party crown.

After a shock defeat by Gingrich in South Carolina last weekend and a slew of attacks, Romney's campaign got a fresh boost as he bids to be the party's nominee to take on Democratic President Barack Obama in the November elections.

A Quinnipiac University survey showed the former Massachusetts governor at 38-29 percent over former House of Representatives speaker Gingrich in Florida, re-capturing the lead after slipping badly over recent days.

The poll of likely Republican voters was taken before the candidates' televised debate on Thursday, but it indicated the race may be swinging back in favor of multimillionaire businessman and former venture capitalist Romney.

"Newt Gingrich's momentum from his South Carolina victory appears to have stalled and governor Mitt Romney seems to be pulling away in Florida," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Texas congressman Ron Paul, who has done virtually no campaigning in the Sunshine state, was on 14 percent, and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum was in fourth place, with 12 percent, the survey said.

The field has now narrowed in Florida to a two-man race between Romney and Gingrich, who traded bitter attacks in a debate late Thursday.

Gingrich supporters were still firmly behind their man, manning the phones and handing out pamphlets in the final countdown towards Tuesday's Republican presidential primary here.

"The country is underwater, the house is flooded, we want the best plumber regardless of the flaws he can have," said campaign official Bert Ralston at Gingrich's Jacksonville headquarters.

After a string of debates where he was criticized for lacking passion, Romney came out swinging, rounding on Gingrich for alleging he was against immigrants and dodged his taxes.

"We are not anti-immigrant. We are not anti-immigration," the former Massachusetts governor said. "We are the pro-immigration, pro-legality, pro-citizenship nation."

Immigration policy is high on the agenda in Florida, a vote-rich battleground state where the large Hispanic bloc forms a key constituency.

On Friday, Romney pledged at a conference organized by the Hispanic Leadership Network that he would appoint "a presidential envoy responsible for democracy and freedom in Latin America."

He scored another important victory later in the day when he secured the endorsement of Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuno.

"Mitt Romney is the one candidate who has the record, leadership, experience, and pro-growth plan to continue the course of private-sector job creation we've begun in Puerto Rico and provide economic stability for generations," said Fortuno, who appeared with Romney at a campaign rally in Orlando, Florida.

Before the endorsement, Romney told the Hispanic group that he hoped Puerto Ricans would follow the governor's lead and vote for statehood for the island.

Meanwhile, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, brother of ex-president George W. Bush, warned that the candidates ignored the Hispanic community at their peril.

"If we ignore the aspirational nature of the Hispanic communities across the country and say, 'well, we can just keep doing it the old way', and expect a different result, I think conservative candidates will lose," Bush said.

Romney already has a win in New Hampshire under his belt, and a victory in Florida on Tuesday could once again anoint him as the man to beat in the race.

Gingrich was often caught off guard in Thursday's debate and his usual agility in mounting a pugnacious counter-attack seemed to desert him.

Such was the heat of early exchanges that Gingrich offered a truce: "How about if the four of us agree for the rest of the evening, we're going to talk about issues?"

But the offer was quickly knocked down when Gingrich refused to answer for earlier remarks about Romney's Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts.

Instead Romney went on the attack. "Wouldn't it be nice if people didn't make accusations somewhere else that they weren't willing to make here?" Romney asked rhetorically.

He also ripped Gingrich's plans to establish a permanent base on the moon, largely with private funding. "It may be a big idea, but it's not a good idea," Romney said.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that New York investment bank Goldman Sachs, which is managing much of Romney's $250-million fortune, has emerged as the largest single source of campaign money for the former governor so far.

Its employees have contributed to his campaign at least $367,000, the report said.

[Do Do]

From AP:

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, speaks at a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Trump endorses Romney

By BETH FOUHY and KASIE HUNT | Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Donald Trump on Thursday announced his endorsement of Mitt Romney for president, saying the former Massachusetts governor is "not going to allow bad things to continue to happen to this country we all love."

The reality show host and real estate mogul appeared with Romney and his wife, Ann, at a packed news conference at the Las Vegas hotel that bears Trump's name.

Romney said he was honored to receive the endorsement, but hoped even more to win the endorsement of Nevada voters. The state holds presidential caucuses Saturday.

The endorsement came after a topsy-turvy set of events that suggested Trump might endorse Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich's camp had been so confident of winning the real estate mogul's backing that it had leaked word Trump would support the former House speaker.

Speaking with reporters before the announcement, Trump said he had several meetings with Romney during the past several months and that those meetings helped influence his decision about an endorsement.

He also cited Romney's debate performances and tough stance on China as reasons.

Trump, who publicly had expressed less-than-enthusiastic support for Romney, said his past comments were a reflection of not knowing the former Massachusetts governor very well.

"I never knew him. I knew of him and respected him, but I really got to know him over the past few months," Trump said. "I've had numerous meetings with him."

Gingrich's camp was so confident of Trump's endorsement that those close to the former House speaker confirmed it Wednesday night for news organizations, including the AP. One of those officials said Trump had "sent signals" to Gingrich that he would support him. That individual declined Thursday to elaborate on what those signals were.

On a tour of a Las Vegas manufacturing facility Thursday, Gingrich made clear he wasn't getting Trump's backing.

"No," the former House speaker replied when asked if he was expecting Trump's endorsement. He added that he was amazed at the attention Trump was getting.

The real estate mogul and reality TV show host is known for being unpredictable, and the circus-like atmosphere surrounding the planned endorsement almost seemed designed to gin up interest in the event.

Trump had mused as recently as last month about running for president as an independent and, in interviews, has suggested that he wasn't enthusiastic about Romney's candidacy.

In an interview with CNN last April, Trump dismissed Romney as a "small business guy" and suggested Bain Capital, the venture capital firm where Romney made his millions, had bankrupted companies and destroyed jobs.

"He'd buy companies, he'd close companies, he'd get rid of jobs," Trump said of Romney.

Romney has staked his candidacy on his credentials as a businessman and has pushed back at Gingrich and other rivals who have criticized Bain's practices.

Romney also turned down an invitation to participate in a presidential debate that Trump planned to moderate in Iowa in December. Trump canceled the debate after all the candidates except Gingrich and Santorum refused to participate.

Trump has played an unusually prominent role in the presidential contest since last spring, when he mused publicly about joining the Republican field. His blunt criticism of President Barack Obama and fierce warnings of a nation in decline resonated with tea party activists. At one point, polls showed him briefly surging to the top of the field.

Trump stirred controversy and considerable criticism during that time by openly questioning the validity of Obama's birth certificate, lending credence to the chorus of "birthers" who believe Obama was not born in the United States and thus is ineligible to be president. The fuss pushed Obama to release a long-form version of his birth certificate, proving he was born in Hawaii in 1961.

The president dismissed Trump as a "carnival barker" for ginning up the issue and then memorably skewered his nemesis at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, which Trump attended.

Trump announced last May that he would not be a candidate for the GOP nomination. But he welcomed other hopefuls to his office at Trump Tower on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue for strategy sessions. Romney made the trek, as did former candidates Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Perry.

Trump even took Sarah Palin out for a widely publicized pizza dinner in Times Square when she was considering a presidential bid. But the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee ultimately decided against running.

Gingrich visited Trump in December when he was topping polls in Iowa and nationally. After the meeting, Gingrich told reporters he had persuaded Trump to mentor a group of children from some of New York's poorest schools. The gesture came after Gingrich was criticized for suggesting that poor youngsters should do janitorial chores in their schools to learn the importance of work.

Associated Press writer Shannon McCaffrey in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

[Do Do]

By Paul Steinhauser and John Helton, CNN
updated 9:10 PM EST, Sat February 4, 2012

Las Vegas (CNN) -- Mitt Romney took a large lead as the first returns started coming in from the Nevada Republican presidential caucuses on Saturday.

With 9% of the results in, Romney had about 45% of the vote while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas were tied far behind with 22% each. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who had largely bypassed the state, had 11% of the vote. Those numbers were gathered from vote counters at caucus sites across the state.

With a win in Nevada, Romney will be the first GOP candidate in this cycle to score back-to-back wins. The former Massachusetts governor appeared to win in the Iowa caucuses but the contest was later awarded to Santorum when the vote was certified. Romney scored a big win in New Hampshire but was then stunned in South Carolina by Gingrich. Romney scored a 14-point victory over Gingrich and the rest of the field in Tuesday's Florida primary and entered Saturday's contest with a sizable lead in polls.

Most of the caucuses were completed at 5 p.m. (8 p.m. ET), except for one site in Las Vegas, which was to start after sundown to accommodate Orthodox Jews, Seventh-day Adventists, and others who can't vote until after their Sabbath is over.

The caucuses are open only to the state's more than 470,000 registered Republicans. Nevada's 28 delegates will be awarded proportionately based on the statewide vote.

How Nevada's caucuses work

Polls leading up to the vote had shown Gingrich trailing far behind Romney. At one point in the wake of a poor showing in the Florida primary, Gingrich advisers said he would basically concede the state and look down the road to more friendly states which vote in the March 6 Super Tuesday contests. But ultimately he chose to campaign in Nevada and didn't appear to make up much ground on Romney.

As the votes were being counted, a leading Romney backer in Nevada was calling for Gingrich to drop out of the race instead of continuing to divide the party.

Nevada Rep. Joe Heck, who has been closely allied with Romney since his 2008 presidential bid, said the results of the caucuses should be a wake up call for Gingrich.

"I hope he takes the message that it's time to withdraw gracefully and not continue to divide the party," Heck told reporters in Las Vegas, shortly before the first round of caucus results were announced.

While Romney's campaign and his network of supporters have voiced concerns about Gingrich's threat to remain in the race for the long haul, there has not yet been a chorus of Republican leaders publicly asking him to drop out.

Heck was not as insistent, however, when asked if Paul should also bow out for the good of the party.

Paul should quit when it becomes apparent that there is "enough critical mass in terms of delegates," he said, probably sometime after Super Tuesday.

Gingrich has vowed to stay in the race all the way to the Republican National Convention in August. He is hoping to survive through low-level contests in February and rebound on Super Tuesday, where he could find friendlier voters in March 6 Super Tuesday contests in Georgia, which he represented in Congress, neighboring Tennessee and Oklahoma.

Both Romney and Gingrich are spending caucus night in Nevada. As they did on primary night in Florida, both Paul and Santorum are looking ahead to Tuesday caucus states -- Paul in Minnesota and Santorum in Colorado.

The Silver State could almost be considered home-field advantage for Romney. He won the caucuses here four years ago in his first bid for the GOP nomination, grabbing 51% of the vote, far ahead of Paul, who was in second place at 14%.

According to exit polls from the 2008 caucus, Mormons made up a quarter of the electorate, and Romney, who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, won 95% of their vote.

Romney eventually lost the nomination to Arizona Sen. John McCain.

This time around, polls indicate Romney is again far ahead of his competition for the nomination. According to a Las Vegas Review-Journal/8 News Now poll released Thursday, 45% of likely caucus-goers said they were supporting Romney, with Gingrich at 25%, Santorum at 11% and Paul at 9%, with another 9% unsure.

The poll was conducted before Romney's big win in Florida. Other surveys suggest Romney had an even larger lead. Plus, the candidate has a stronger operation in the state than his rivals.

"Nevada is a tough state for Gingrich and Santorum. They have three strikes against them before they even go to the plate," says Alex Castellanos, a GOP strategist and CNN contributor. "One, 11,000 of the 44,000 GOP caucus-goers four years ago were LDS and will go again for Romney. Two, Nevada also has a strong 'leave me alone' libertarian contingent that will vote for Paul, and three, Clark County, around Las Vegas, is dominated by establishment Republicans, not ideological conservatives."

Romney won big in New Hampshire, but his momentum didn't last, and Gingrich carried the day in South Carolina. His momentum obviously fizzled in Florida. Romney hopes to break the streak of a different winner each week.

Romney won the endorsement on Thursday of real estate mogul and reality TV star's Donald Trump, who last year flirted with his own bid for the White House, is a well-known figure in Las Vegas and his outspoken criticism of President Barack Obama has made him popular with some tea party activists and grassroots conservatives.

The state's strong tea party movement should have been Gingrich's trump card in Nevada, but supporters seem divided between Gingrich, Paul and Santorum, who just landed the endorsement of Sharron Angle, the tea party-supported Republican Senate nominee who came close to unseating Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the 2010 midterm elections. The division of tea party supporters only helps Romney.

Gingrich started up his operations in Nevada much later than Romney and has been playing catch-up since. He does have some major allies in the state, including billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who along with his family has contributed millions of dollars to an independent pro-Gingrich super PAC.

A defeat in Nevada, especially if it's by double digits, could be damaging to the former House Speaker's bid for the nomination.

"One double-digit loss in Florida was devastating for Gingrich, but a second shellacking Saturday in Nevada will dry up his money," said Castellanos, who was a top media adviser for Romney's 2008 nomination bid but who is not taking sides this cycle. "Newt's campaign is already over a million dollars in debt. Even if his super PAC can find some coins under the sofa cushions, soon his campaign committee won't be able to afford travel or staff. All Newt will be able to do is throw long bombs. He will be frozen in place."

The Silver State won't be in the rearview mirror of presidential politics for too long. Nevada is a battleground state in the general election, having voted for the winning presidential candidate 10 out of the last 11 elections. Obama beat McCain by 12 points there in 2008.

CNN Political Reporter Peter Hamby contributed to this report

[Do Do]

From MSNBC:

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum speaks in Colorado Springs, Colo., Tuesday.
Chris Carlson/AP

With signs that Newt Gingrich is fading, Tuesday's three caucuses could help Rick Santorum woo anti-Romney conservatives. But many challenges lie ahead.

By Amanda Paulson, Staff Writer / February 7, 2012

Tuesday night is shaping up to be a good night for Rick Santorum.

While polling has been limited in the three states holding contests Tuesday (Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri), and an unusually high number of voters are uncommitted, pollsters are predicting that Mr. Santorum will win two out of the three and should place a close second to Mitt Romney in Colorado.

The question is: Will that be enough to revive Santorum's candidacy or even put him on a path to nomination?

RECOMMENDED: Rick Santorum and 7 other politicians with Google problems

Despite winning (barely) Iowa's caucuses a month ago, Santorum has been largely an also-ran in the early contests, barely getting mentioned by headlines more interested in Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul.

So why is the former Pennsylvania senator surging now?

Likeability might be one factor. According to a recent Public Policy Polling report, responsible for the most up-to-date polls in the three states voting today, Santorum has a favorability rating over 70 percent in all three states. That's in marked contrast to Romney (with favorability ranging from 47 to 60 percent) and Mr. Gingrich (47 to 48 percent).

Santorum's biggest appeal, according to PPP, is with tea partyers, Evangelicals, and voters who describe themselves as "very conservative" – all groups who had been leaning toward Gingrich, but now seem to be abandoning him for Santorum.

There are positive signs in other polls as well. While Santorum still trails both Romney and Gingrich in national polls, Gallup's daily tracking poll now has him only six points behind Gingrich, who is falling. And a new Rasmussen poll that tracks how all four candidates do in potential matchups against President Obama has Santorum as the only candidate who comes out ahead, 45 percent to 44 percent (a finding Santorum's campaign has highlighted as much as they can).

Another reason for Santorum's resurgence may be Gingrich's descent. More conservative voters seem to be getting over their Gingrich crush and, still unhappy with Romney as a nominee, are moving to Santorum. Gingrich's decision not to make any campaign appearances in Minnesota this past week – one of the few states where he might have had a chance – only helps Santorum.

(In Missouri, whose nonbinding primary Tuesday has been likened to a "beauty contest" before the actual delegate-choosing caucuses in a month, Gingrich isn't even on the ballot – another point in Santorum's favor.)

But before anyone starts speculating about the possibility of a real battle between Santorum and Romney, there are some big caveats.

For one thing, the contests Tuesday are relatively small ones – only getting attention in the February desert of the GOP primary season – and don't even mean much for delegate counts. Colorado and Minnesota's caucuses are nonbinding, with delegates actually selected when the state party holds conventions later in March or April.

Santorum faces massive hurdles ahead when it comes to fundraising and organization against the better prepared Romney team. He also needs to convince voters that he can talk about the economy as well as he can talk about conservative social issues, and that he actually has a possibility of becoming the nominee. And he has to hit hard against Romney's weaknesses without going so negative that he loses that likeability edge – a tall order.

Santorum has already stepped up those attacks, hammering away at Romney for his Massachusetts healthcare program, in particular. In Minnesota this week he argued that "RomneyCare" makes Romney "uniquely unqualified" from being the nominee.

But Romney is stepping up his attacks too, and now has Santorum in his sights, largely ignoring Gingrich and Paul. He even had Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty hold a conference call with reporters Monday just to bash Santorum, calling him a "champion of earmarks."

It's becoming harder and harder to envision a GOP nominee other than Romney – even if Santorum slows his momentum Tuesday night and keeps the uncertainty going. But Santorum does have a few influential conservatives pulling for him.

A strong showing by Santorum Tuesday, argues William Kristol in the Weekly Standard, would do the most to slow the "Romney juggernaut." "It would also of course help Santorum's chances to replace Gingrich down the road as the alternative to Romney – an outcome that, I suspect, might well result in a better race for the nomination and a healthier situation for the ultimate Republican nominee," he writes.

The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin, meanwhile, outlines in her Right Turn blog all the hurdles Santorum would have to clear to get the nomination – which she agrees are a lot. But she concludes:

"The right made a critical error in not recognizing Santorum’s strengths earlier in the race. But time is not his greatest enemy, and it’s not useful for him to dwell on why conservative pundits went chasing after defective contenders. What he now has to do is grow in stature, project himself as Romney’s equal and convince conservatives that they can not only improve their chances of winning back the White House but also get a more consistent conservative if they jump from the Romney ship... But if anyone in the GOP field (past or present) can do it, Santorum’s the guy."