Super Tuesday: Mitt Romney dismisses speculation of Sarah Palin challenge

“We’ve organised a very effective team, I’m really proud of the folks across
the country that have been making the calls, knocking on doors, turning out
voters, this is the nature of a campaign that you have to have to take on
the Obama machine.

“I’m pleased it’s working; we’ve got the time, the resources and the plan to
get all the delegates and we think that will get done before the convention.

“One thing I can tell you for sure, there’s not going to be a brokered
convention, where some new person comes in and becomes the nominee. It’s
going to be one of the four people that are still running.”

Following last night’s results, Mr Romney has 381 delegates, compared to 160
for Rick Santorum, 101 for Newt Gingrich and 61 for Ron Paul. He needs 1,144
to win.

On Tuesday night Mr Romney acknowledged that the contest was sure to drag on
through spring and that he would have “good days and bad days”.

“Tomorrow we wake up and we start again,” he told a hotel ballroom filled with
well-heeled backers. “And the next day we do the same. And so it will go –
day by day, step by step, door to door”.

Defeat in the rust-belt state, which no successful US presidential candidate
has ever lost, would have prompted fresh concerns that as the nominee, Mr
Romney would be incapable of ousting Mr Obama. Despite winning by just 38
per cent to 37, his overall victory is increasingly being viewed as
inevitable.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife Ann take the stage for a Super Tuesday event at the Westin Copley Place in Boston, Massachusetts (Win McNamee/Getty Images)Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife Ann take the
stage for a Super Tuesday event at the Westin Copley Place in Boston,
Massachusetts (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

As experts warned that Mr Santorum now faces an almost impossible task to win
the contest outright, he claimed that the close finish in the bellwether
state showed that the contest was far from over.

“We’ve won races all over this country against the odds,” he told a packed
school gymnasium in Steubenville, in blue-collar eastern Ohio. “When they
thought, ‘oh OK, he’s finally finished,’ we keep coming back”.

Hogan Gidley, a spokesman for Mr Santorum, compared their campaign to the New
York Giants American football team, which last month stole a late win over
Mr Romney’s team in the game’s biggest match.

“I’m sure Governor Romney would have like to have stopped the Super Bowl at
half time and let his Patriots win, but we’ve got a second half to play,”
said Mr Gidley. “We’ve got 28 states left and we’ll keep on pushing
forward”.

Supporters of Mitt Romney hold up letters spelling his name at his Super
Tuesday primary election night rally in Boston (Reuters)

Aides to Mr Romney pointed out that his haul of party delegates in Ohio would
comfortably outweigh Mr Santorum’s thanks to a series of embarrassing
administrative failures by the former senator’s camp.

Newt Gingrich, a former House Speaker, won his second primary victory in
Georgia, the state he represented in Congress until 1999. He dismissed
suggestions that he might withdraw from the race, pledging instead to
compete in a trio of southern contests next week.

“In the morning we are going on to Alabama,” he told supporters in Atlanta.
“We’re going on to Mississippi. We’re going on to Kansas, and that’s just
this week”.

Mr Romney won the last poll in Alaska in the early hours of the morning, with
33 per cent of the vote, followed by Mr Santorum with 29 per cent.

Mitt Romney hugs his family after he spoke at his Super Tuesday primary
election night rally in Boston, Massachusetts (Reuters)

The former Massachusetts governor attempted as usual to raise his sights
towards Mr Obama in his remarks. “We won’t settle for this President’s ‘new
normal’,” he said. “Eight per cent unemployment is not the best America can
do, it’s just the best this administration can do.”

However it was left to his wife Ann to deliver an apparent criticism of both
Mr Obama and Mr Santorum over the ongoing row between the president and the
Republican Right over women’s rights to contraception.

Introducing her husband, Mrs Romney said the couple had met women across the
country and discovered that they were indeed “furious” – but about
pocketbook issues. “You know what women care about?” she asked. “Women care
about jobs. Women care about the economy. They care about their children and
they care about the debt”.

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