To an extent, that’s certainly true. These *particular* states run non-binding polls which, effectively, means that the delegates from those states will simply change to vote for whoever the winner is whenever the winner becomes clear. So, as far as that goes, it’s a useless contest and result.

However, it’s certainly going to change the nature of the race. Representatives of the Romney and Gingrich camps have been putting themselves out there (such as McCain and Thompson on Meet the Press last week) desperately trying to get over the message that, respectively, Romney’s obviously going to win so it’s time for everyone to shut up and fall in line and it’s obviously now a two-horse race and it’s time for the other Not-Romney candidates to drop out and give Gingrich room to fight. More importantly, the media seemed to be generally agreeing Santorum and Paul had no chance at all.

Both of those stances have been blown away now and it’s going to be a long time now before any of the candidates again has an opportunity to push for an early end to the competition.

To give a truer idea of where the race is at, here’s the current delegate count (remembering, it’s delegates, not states, that matter)
Mitt Romney 114
Newt Gingrich 46
Rick Santorum 40
Ron Paul 28

Although when you take out the ‘non-binding’ delegates who can change their minds later, it looks like:

Mitt Romney 73
Newt Gingrich 29
Ron Paul 8
Rick Santorum 3

So, yeah, Santorum’s series of wins don’t *in reality* mean as much for him as they might appear. But as a media narrative he can play on, he’d be stupid to bow out now and his chances of serious progress has just improved drastically.

The following is a friend from Arizona’s status update from a few months back..
Quote:
“Crunching the numbers:

No matter what the media wants you to believe, The republican nomination is already a two-man race.

FACT: Of the 2,286 total Republican delegates, 1,144 are needed to win nomination.

FACT: In five (5) States: Virginia, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Illinois, Gingrich and Santorum are not even on the ballot. That’s 564 delegates that they cannot get.

FACT: After South Carolina, only 59 delegates have been allocated to the 4 candidates. Mitt Romney has 39 of those. This means Santorum or Gingrich has to pick up 1,144 delegates from the remaining 1,683.

Let’s say that Ron Paul only picks up 20% of the total number of delegates. That’s 457 delegates for Paul. Add that to the 564 that Newt and Santorum won’t have a shot at and now there are 1,021 delegates that Santorum and Gingrich have no chance of getting. Subtract that 1,021 from the total 2,286 and you’re left with 1,265 delegates. That means that Gingrich and Santorum, one or the other, have to pick up over 90% of the available delegates to get the nomination. So, essentially, we’re down to Paul and Romney.

A vote for Paul is not a wasted vote and may well mean that the next President of the United States will be a man that, for the last 30 years, has not broken a promise, compromised his principles or waffled his position on an issue. Preserving individual liberties and property rights are the primary reason for the Federal government, and with a President Paul there is a real chance we may turn back to these principles!…”
End quote.

Add to this the fact that mainstream media outlets have consistently misrepresented facts about Ron Paul’s campaign or his levels of support begs the question – why?

Ron Paul’s campaign is viral. A large chunk of the campaign isn’t even coming from him or his campaign coordinators it’s coming from his supporters making their own videos.. An aggregate site was recently founded to bring them all together. He has the support of the so called “Patriot Movement”, the troops, and a huge percentage of the Internet generation. The main evening news simply doesn’t want to admit it, but this video puts it quite nicely, please do watch it, as it shows incidences of severe truth economy from the mainstream media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ocJn_V6qyU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

It’s a pity many people vote for the person they think might win. It makes a mockery of democracy which is supposed to be about representation and not perceived popularity..

He also says there’s a US Government programme to assassinate Nuclear scientists who work in Iran – and says he thinks it’s wonderful!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8uNcIEvGdo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Nice the way they can bypass justice and just assassinate based on assumption there isn’t it? There’s no evidence of Iranian weapons, same way there was no evidence of WMDs in Iraq.. Anyone with sense would at least wait until after the UN inspections have been completed – that’s the kind of talk that could indeed start a war..

Good news for Obama. Head to head polling shows that, if an Obama/Santorum election was held today Obama would win by 10% (better than he’d do against Romney (who he’d beat by 5%), though not as well as he’d do against Gingrich (who he’d beat by 12%). And the Obama campaign hasn’t even properly started yet.

But anything that prolongs the Republican competition and forestalls the eventual candidate (still probably Romney let’s face it) beginning their national election campaign in earnest is good for Obama. Especially since the Republicans seem so determined to tear lumps out of each other in the meantime.

Anything to back that up with or do you just like name calling?

Which observable fact has you so upset?

Who is upset? You are the one calling names.

Really, name calling – are you still at school?

Really Sean, still avoiding my original question?

Do your own research and try to work out how someone not living in a right-wing bubble might consider that fool to be a freak.

Start with his views on sex, religion, science, education and women – don’t go to Fox news for your ‘facts’ though.