GOP Presidential Primary Hat Trick: Rick Santorum Clean Sweep over Romney in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri

RICK SANTORUM, YES HE DID …

The day started as a Romney GOP Primary momentum with wins in Florida and Nevada and ended in the most unlikely Rick Santorum Hat trick with wins in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado. Is Santorum the latest flavor of the month or a viable candidate to run against Barack Obama? The GOP primary has taken another turn. Who would have thought at this point that Santorum would have had more wins than Romney t this point in the race?

Rick Santorum had a breakthrough night Tuesday, winning GOP presidential contests in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado, all of which is expected to breathe life into his struggling campaign and slow Mitt Romney’s march to the Republican presidential nomination.

The Santorum triumphs promise to, at least temporarily, alter the face of the campaign going into the crucial “Super Tuesday” contests, as the caustic tone of the primaries is expected to continue and intensify. Romney and his allies have signaled that they will use their financial advantage to launch stepped-up attacks on Santorum and on former House speaker Newt Gingrich, the other main challenger.

Cal it what you want, sweep, hat trick or trifecta … what Santorum accomplished last night was impressive. However, the only fear of a Santorum-Obama match up are the words that actually came from Rick’s mouth when discussing an election without negative ads and being outspent in advertizing 5 to 1. Conservatives and Republicans have to take a realistic look at this and know that Obama is going to outspend any GOP candidate and as for negative ads, forget about it.

However, one thing is for certain, maybe its time for Newt Gingrich to get out of the race and Santorum is the people’s conservative choice. Gingrich is in trouble, maybe its time to fade into the sunset. Santorum is now the non-Romney candidate.

Romney Did Win Big in Nevada Despite Caucus Voting Chaos, Up in Colorado, Arizona & Michigan … Close Call in Minnesota

It would appear that Romney is going to dominate February …

The Nevada Caucuses took place Saturday and Mitt Romney was declared the winner; however, they have still yet to count all of the caucus votes. What is going on with the caucus system in the US. First Iowa was a fiasco in that they declared Romney the winner, only to later learn that Santorum won. However, in Nevada Romney will still be the winner as he was up big with about 73% of the voting counted, the problem is that the final 25% counting. Whether they want to get the vote counts correct or not to avoid the embarrassment to Iowa, the fact of the matter is that the lack of timely counting still leaves egg on Caucus system faces.

And, still, party officials in Nevada’s largest county continue to count the vote.

“We are going to get this right,” Clark County Chairman David Gibbs told the Las Vegas Sun today. “If it takes us a little bit of time to get it rights, we are going to take the time.”

As the GOP primary candidates look to future states, Romney appears top be up in Colorado, Arizona and Michigan … however, the race is too close to call in Minnesota.

Mitt Romney Appears to be Coasting to Big Victory in Nevada Republican Caucuses (UPDATE: Romney Wins Nevada)

Mitt Romney cruising to easy win in Nevada …

With early results being counted in the Nevada Republican Caucuses, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney appears well on his way to an easy and overwhelming majority victory in Nevada. According to CNN, with 3% reporting, Romney 52%, Paul 20%, Gingrich 19% and Santorum at 9%, Romney will win gig in Nevada with Gingrich a distant second and possible third. Although, Ron Paul has already left Nevada and is in Minnesota giving speeches. What’s up with that?

Looks like Romney will win by this much

Mitt Romney is actually doing better than pre-Caucus polling. In 2008, Romney won the Nevada Caucus with 51.1% of the vote.

UPDATE I: The following is quite amazing for Romney, if the majority voting margin continues … as per the AP,  Conservatives accounted for about 4 in 5 voters in the Nevada Caucus and around 3 in 4 Nevada voters said they were tea party supporters.

UPDATE II: 10% reporting, Romney 48%, Paul 21%, Gingrich 20%, and Santorum 11%.

What is interesting is that it looks like Nevada will be the second state in a row that dispels Gingrich’s theory that Santorum needs to get out of the race to consolidate the conservative vote against Romney to win. That was not the case in Florida and certainly not in Nevada. So far Gingrich + Santorum only equals 33%. That is 15% less that Romney’s totals so far tonight.

UPDATE III: CNN Calls Nevada for Romney.

The Trump Card … Donald Trump to Endorse Newt Gingrich? Third Party Run? Who Knows (UPDATE: Trump Endorses Romney}

THE TRUMP CARD GETS HIMSELF MEDIA ATTENTION, AGAIN.

The Donald has once again grabbed the media spot light and has announced that he has a a major announcement in Las Vegas today. It is being reported byKLAS-TV8 that Donald Trump is going to endorse Newt Gingrich. The announcement is slated to “pertain to the presidential race, according to a statement from Trump’s office. Gingrich claims he has no idea what Trump is going to say. Man he has a way of continually bring attention to himself doesn’t he.  Just curious, when did Donald trump become politically relevant?

An advisor to Donald Trump says he will make a major announcement in Las Vegas tomorrow. Sources tell the 8 News NOW I-Team Trump will endorse Newt Gingrich.

According to Trump advisor Michael Cohen, “Donald J. Trump will be making a major announcement tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. at Trump International Hotel & Tower, Las Vegas, Nevada… The announcement will pertain to the Presidential race.”

One might ask themselves why would Donald Trump get involved at this point in the GOP Presidential primary and endorse Newt, especially after Gingrich was just hammered in the Florida primary? Doug Powers at Michelle Malkin.com has come up with some plausible reasons why The Donald wants the media attention. Maybe there will be a subliminal message flashing in the back ground that says, “YOU MUST WATCH THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE”.  What are the chances that Trump will make a reference during his announcement that the new Apprentice show begins in two weeks? It is free advertizing after all.

… Trump might also pitch the next season of Celebrity Apprentice while announcing an endorsement for Rick Santorum or Ron Paul. Another possibility is that Trump will announce plans for a new show called “The GOP Candidate Apprentice”…

My take is if Trump does endorse Newt Gingrich, who because of not being on so many primary ballots has more than an up hill climb for the required delegates, The Donald is doing it to set up a potential third party run. Its a win-win for Trump. This was he can say either at the end of the GOP primary, my candidate won, look at me, I am so relevant, I am a king makers. Or if Romney wins, he can then say, I am running as a third party as I do not think that Mitt is right for America and still put himself out there is the MSM limelight. Of course, any third party run by Trump is a victory for Obama.

UPDATE I: Looks like all the so-called pundit politicos in the know got it wrong … TRUMP endorses Mitt Romney. That is correct, The Donald picks Romney. As the Daily Caller opines, there are some with quite a bit of egg on their face.

In the end, The Donald went with what he is perceiving as the sure thing.

Daily Commentary – Wednesday, February 1, 2012 – Mitt Romney Wins Florida Primary in Landslide

• Even after Gingrich robo-call drops a “Holocaust” reference to pound Romney … the result was a Romney landslide.

Daily Commentary – Wednesday, February 1, 2012 Download