Rick Santorum Sweeps Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado

This is Senator Santorum's speech from last night:




Conservatives finally found a voice here in The Heartland of America and with a loud voice spoke that Romney is not inevitable as our candidate. All the infighting between Newt and Romney has taken its toll because in the last debate Santorum looked like the only adult in the room. Would Florida have turned out like it did for Mitt if the voters had not already cast so many absentee ballots when the debate took place?

RNC is most like not a not a very happy place this morning as they did all they could with setting up the debates with liberal moderators, allowing the schedule to play out, and then announcing they were not going to make Florida play by the rules for proportioning delegates. Their inevitable candidate Romney is not invincible like they wanted everyone to believe along with  he was the only one who could beat Obama. OOPS! Now Rasmussen is saying Santorum is the only Republican who can beat Obama.

Santorum doesn't flip flop and stays true to his convictions which I can respect even when I don't agree 100%. The one thing that most rationale people should be able to agree on is the fact that Rick is a very nice person and would bring total class to the White House and we don't have to worry about him going left like we would Romney.

After last night, I would not predict this race but suffice it to say when I saw Denver and Boulder counties along with the liberal enclaves of the mountains and the NW part of Colorado near Utah come in and Romney was only ahead by a small amount, I knew Santorum was most likely the winner. Two hotspots for conservatives -- El Paso (Colorado Springs) and Weld (Greeley) counties had not reported and allowed the liberal counties to come in first. The CO GOP Chair called the race as he knew that Santorum had the votes in the rural counties along with Weld and El Paso. Sure enough Weld came in to give Santorum the lead and then El Paso which cinched the deal. Thank you Colorado for putting the exclamation on the evening.

To me the following from Byron York sums up what is wrong with the Romney camp and what is right with Santorum:

After the returns came in, I asked Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley what he thought about Rich Beeson's message. Sure, Santorum did well on Tuesday, but doesn't Romney have the money and infrastructure to outdistance Santorum, and everyone else, in the long run? 

"What an inspiring message," Gidley said sarcastically. "That is really inspiring. I can't wait to put a bumper sticker on my truck that says MONEY-INFRASTRUCTURE 2012." 

"No one had more money and infrastructure than Hillary Clinton, and hope and change wiped her off the map," Gidley continued. "We'll have money, and we'll have infrastructure, but our nominee has to have a message that people can get behind and inspires people."

In 2008, Romney won Minnesota big and touted that 60% victory in Colorado as saying the race is far from over.  Romney's campaign started singing a different tune yesterday morning that no real delegates were awarded -- that it was a beauty contest.  Bet me it doesn't matter.  If Romney thinks that the people in those states are going to do a flip flop and award him the delegates, he needs a reality check.

The shift to Santorum was fast and overwhelming. In the end, Santorum beat Romney by 27 points in a state Romney had won by 19 points back in 2008. Santorum scored an even bigger victory in Missouri's beauty-contest, nonbinding primary, beating Romney by 30 points. 

Will Michigan award the son of the former Governor George Romney, its delegates or will conservatives speak out as one to give Santorum another boost?  Santorum is the conservative left in the race who can win so now we have it coming down to the liberal Romney versus the conservative Santorum as we go forward.  Newt got clobbered by conservatives last night and didn't even do a concession speech.  The fighting between Newt and Romney took its toll on both men as it should have.  Then there was the famous Romney quote that he doesn't care about the poor that I must have heard 30 times last night if not more.  When you are not comfortable trying to be a conservative, it shows.

Maybe Florida's Attorney General Pam Bondi won't get to serve on Romney's healthcare group that plans to mandate healthcare in every state as we have a lot more hope it won't happen then we did yesterday.

Conservatives in upcoming states need to ask themselves who can best beat Obama with an agenda that is conservative.  That leaves out Obama lite which is what Romney's record tells us.  Choosing a former MA liberal Governor is not the way for Republicans to win.  This morning there is hope that we will have a conservative opposing Obama.  Ronald Reagan always said that if he agreed with someone on 80% of the issues, he would count them a friend. By implication 80% disagreement would probably indicate that he couldn't work with that person.

That 80% disagreement is why I never could support Romney because how do we know where he stands on anyone issue as he flip flops on what he deemed were his values when he ran for Governor in 2002 only ten years ago.  Was he lying then or lying now.  Since he became an independent when Reagan was President, we suspect he is lying now about his conservative views and why he is so uncomfortable in his own skin as he tries to pander to conservatives.

There is no doubt that Rick Santorum is a conservative with a lifetime ACU rating of 87 which is great out of a Senator who comes from Pennsylvania which is not exactly a Red State.  Would be willing to bet that he wishes he had never caved to Bush 43 and supported Arlen Specter who then became a Democrat after his win which was part of the reason that Santorum lost his Senate seat.

Senator Santorum has breathed life into a campaign that the establishment was pushing Romney as inevitable for which we are very grateful.  Heading into Super Tuesday where my state of Oklahoma votes, we have a lot of hope that the tide has turned against Romney and for Santorum as conservatives speak out across Middle America.  We do not count Virginia where only two are on the ballot because of their rules even their AG says are unconstitutional but since the Governor of Virginia supports Romney, we would expect no less.

Funny how when Rick Perry entered the race, he had to resign as head of the RGA, and was replaced by Romney supporters as Chair and Vice Chair.  That is one of those moments where you have to wonder if the march to get Romney the nomination was planned right after the 2008 loss and why they attacked Rick Perry with so much venom.  After Romney had endorsed Kay Bailey against Perry for Governor, it showed the Bush 41 group of establishment wanted to inflict any damage they could on Perry so he would not overtake Romney.  They may have won the battle with Perry but they never counted on Rick Santorum which could be a huge mistake.  The establishment could still lose the war if conservatives on Super Tuesday rise up and say NO to Romney the moderate to liberal Rockefeller candidate and keep momentum going for Santorum who looks to be the best hope to defeat Romney and to oppose Obama.

With Rick Santorum, we would not have to worry about losing House and Senate seats -- conservatives will turn out to vote for him that would have stayed home or voted 3rd Party with Romney.  That is something a lot of establishment types never got through their brains -- a lot of us are not holding our nose and voting for Romney who frankly is Obama lite. 

The biggest problem ahead is the Romney slime machine which will be all out to tank Santorum now.  Since we have been seeing the Romney campaign in action with its attacks, don't think it is going to work against Santorum but we will see as the jury is still out.  Our hope is that voters in upcoming states see through the Romney attacks and vote for Santorum.