Mr Romney’s victories in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington DC will stretch
further an already commanding lead in delegates over his nearest opponent,
former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum.
According to the Associated Press, Mr Romney looked on course to secure at
least three-quarters of the 98 delegates on offer tonight, putting him at
646 to Mr Santorum’s 272.
While Mr Romney is only just over half way to the 1,144 needed to secure the
nomination he needs to win less than half of the remaining delegates – a
rate of victory that should be well within his grasp.
The exchange of fire between the Republican frontrunner and the Democrat
president left Mr Santorum struggling to make himself heard as he begged
conservative voters to reject Mr Romney, who he called the choice of the
party’s “establishment and aristocracy”.
He compared his electoral situation to that of Ronald Reagan’s in 1976, when
the conservative icon languished in the early contests against President
Gerald Ford before winning a string of conservative states like Texas.
Inconveniently for Mr Santorum’s analogy, Reagan went on to ultimately lose
to the nomination.
“There’s one person [Reagan] who understood we don’t win by moving to the
middle, we win by getting people in the middle to move to us to move this
country forward,” Mr Santorum said in defiance of conventional logic
that dictates Mr Romney’s appeal to independents and moderates makes him a
stronger general election candidate.
Close observers of Mr Romney’s candidacy also noted that he was introduced
onstage by Congressman Paul Ryan, a young darling of the conservative
movement, who many political analysts believe is at the top of the
frontrunner’s list of potential running mates.
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