Rick Santorum Did it Again … Wins in Alabama & Mississippi Primaries and Mitt Romney in Hawaii Caucuses

Deep South Tuesday primaries and Hawaii Caucuses …

It was close; however, in the end Rick Santorum wins in the Deep South Alabama and Mississippi primaries.In Alabama it was a virtual tie among Santorum, Gingrich and Romney with the GOP Presidential hopefuls gaining 32.9%, 31.3% and 30.3% respectively. Santorum won in Mississippi with 34.5%, Gingrich 29.3% and Romney with 29.0% .

The triumphs by Mr. Santorum elevated and strengthened his candidacy as the Republican campaign rolls ahead into a state-by-state battle for delegates. An aggressive push by Mr. Romney to try and capitalize on the divided conservative electorate failed to take hold, and he finished third in both states.

“We did it again,” Mr. Santorum said, addressing jubilant supporters in Louisiana, which holds its Republican primary next week. “The time is now for conservatives to pull together.”

In Hawaii, Romney won easily with 45.4% of the vote, Santorum a distant second with 25.3%, Paul with 18.3% and Gingrich last with 11%. At the evenings end, Romny will most likely wind up winning the most delegates when they are proportionally distributed in Alabama, Mississippi and Hawaii.

With Gingrich losing Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi to Santorum, one does have to question whether Newt really is the ‘Southern” candidate. Although, I do not believe in candidates telling others to get out of the race to make it easier for themselves, at some point Newt Gingrich is going to have to read the tea leaves and admit that the voters believe that Santorun is the stronger Conservative GOP candidate.It probably is time for Gingrich to be a statesman and gracefully bow out of the race.

“We did it again,” Mr. Santorum told supporters in Louisiana on Tuesday night. He added: “Ordinary folks can defy the odds, day in, day out.”

The results cast a shadow on the candidacy of Newt Gingrich, who was banking on a sweep of the Deep South to carry him to the nomination. He squeaked into a second-place finish in both states, ahead of Mr. Romney—and vowing to stay in the race.

“Newt has given it a great run, but Santorum has earned a mano-a-mano shot at Romney,” said Keith Appell, a Republican strategist who has worked for a long list of conservative candidates.