Thread: Romney Faces Long Odds for Nomination

Romney Faces Long Odds for Nomination
2008-02-06
By GLEN JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer



BOSTON (AP) — Despite vows to fight on, Mitt Romney found himself confronted Wednesday with the prospect that securing the Republican presidential nomination is a mathematical longshot.

The former Massachusetts governor had 294 delegates to the Republican National Convention after voting Tuesday in 21 nominating contests; 1,191 are needed to become the party's nominee.

The counting of Super Tuesday delegates continued Wednesday, but front-runner John McCain was in position to win a large share of those remaining delegates after winning most of the contests.

More problematic for Romney, only about 1,200 delegates remained to be won before New Mexico wraps up the nominating process on June 3. That means to secure the nomination he would have to win more than three-fourths of that delegate pool.

A number of those states, though, award delegates to the top-vote getter in each of their congressional districts, allowing McCain and the current third-place candidate, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, to continue claiming delegates even in places where Romney may have overall strength. A fourth candidate, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, also remains on the ballot.

Eric Fehrnstrom, a top Romney spokesman, said Wednesday that Huckabee has a strong chance of performing well in coming contests in Virginia and Mississippi, thanks to the support of evangelicals who have been backing the former Southern Baptist minister.

Those two states will award a total of 99 delegates, further depleting the pool available to Romney. Virginia gives its 63 delegates to the overall top vote-getter.

By contrast, Fehrnstrom said Romney was targeting Ohio and Texas, two big-ticket states voting March 4. He noted Ohio has faced economic problems similar to Michigan, where Romney won the primary on Jan. 15, and Texas was stocked with conservatives.

Romney has been winning their votes by accusing McCain of harboring liberal positions against tax cuts, illegal immigration and on campaign finance reform legislation he says has been exploited by the Democrats.

Nonetheless, Ohio and Texas award 222 delegates, and both do so to the top vote-getter in each congressional district. In Texas, McCain also enjoys the endorsement of Gov. Rick Perry.

"We feel very confident about our chances moving forward, and frankly, I didn't think (Super Tuesday) was the day Senator McCain hoped it would be," Fehrnstrom said. "He wanted to be the presumptive nominee this morning and, clearly, he's not."

Romney had no public appearances Wednesday and said nothing to reporters who awaited his arrival at campaign headquarters, other than "Got some good sleep last night." He departed about five hours later, without comment.

While inside, Romney huddled with top advisers, including his wife, Ann; brother, Scott; eldest son Tagg and campaign manager, Beth Myers, while also delivering what Fehrnstrom described as a "pep talk" to his staff that produced cheers and applause audible to reporters waiting outside the building.

Romney also worked on a speech he was delivering Thursday to the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting in Washington. He scheduled another speech that night in Baltimore — Maryland votes Tuesday — and planned to compete in weekend caucuses in Kansas and Washington state.

Romney had hoped support from conservatives would propel him to victory over McCain on Tuesday. Nonetheless, McCain won in nine of the 21 states voting, Romney won seven and Huckabee won five. McCain took to labeling himself "the front-runner," while Huckabee vowed: "The one way you can't win a race is to quit it, and until somebody beats me, I'm going to answer the bell for every round of this fight."

Romney was equally upbeat in a speech to supporters in his home state of Massachusetts, where he scored one of his Super Tuesday wins. The others came in the caucus states of Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Colorado and Alaska, where his organizational strength was evident, and Utah, where fellow Mormons account for 62 percent of the population.

"I think there's some people who thought it was all going to be done tonight, but it's not all done tonight. We're going to keep on battling," Romney said Tuesday night. "We're going to go all the way to the convention. We're going to win this thing and we're going to go to the White House."


Zoomtown.Com News



This ALIPAC member has posted this entity be it editorial opinion, news article, column, or web creation as information for the General Population (public) only. It is not intended as an endorsement for this candidate by this poster. Its use here has not been anticipated to be used as, or used to discredit any candidate mentioned herewith.

Romney doesn't need 900 more delegates to take it to the convention, he only needs to keep McCain from getting another 500. Which might be possible if Huckabee would drop out. But Huck seems to want to tear the GOP apart.

Gee, just more Main Stream Media supporting John McCain again.

Dixie

I don't feel too bad about Romney's chances after hearing Mrs. Serpenthead on the Glen Beck Show Wednesday night. I think he has a good chance. I hope it will be true.

Originally Posted by Dixie

Gee, just more Main Stream Media supporting John McCain again.

Dixie

agreed