Primary

Earlier in the week we noted that Mitt Romney won 9 delegates from Guam, where only 215 people voted. That's impressive efficiency. But it's nothing compared with the work Romney's campaign did in American Samoa last night. Romney won 9 delegates from American Samoa, too. Want to guess how many voters caucused there? Go ahead. I'll wait.

With the Alabama and Mississippi primaries now complete, and with the Hawaii caucuses counted, more than half of the states (accounting for 41 percent of the delegates) are now in the books in the Republican presidential race. Through these first 26 states, Mitt Romney has won 52.7 percent (496 of 942) of the available delegates, a shade over the 50 percent rate he must eclipse in order to secure a majority of the delegates (1,144 of 2,286) before the GOP convention.

The latest Public Policy Polling survey shows Rick Santorum leading Mitt Romney by 15 percentage points in the Republican presidential race.

When Mitt Romney won the Florida primary last Tuesday by 14 percentage points, how many people in America imagined that when Colorado, Missouri, and Minnesota were contested just seven days later, he would fail to win in any of them?

Was yesterday Super Tuesday? Only three states had contests, and one was a beauty primary commanding no delegates. On the other hand, it was the first day in which there were races in more than one state, more delegates were selected yesterday than on any day of the primary season so far, and about 365,000 votes were cast.

To the Republicans of the states of Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado:

This is your moment to vote on a subject that speaks its own importance—who will be the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, the man (if I may quote myself!) “who will save us from the ghastly prospect of an Obama second term, and who will then have the task of beginning to put right our listing ship of state, setting our nation on a course to restored solvency, reinvigorated liberty, and renewed greatness.”

In Missouri, where the next Republican primary will take place (next Tuesday), a new poll by PPP shows Rick Santorum leading Mitt Romney by 11 percentage points — 45 to 34 percent — while Ron Paul has 13 percent support.  Newt Gingrich isn’t on the ballot in Missouri, so the Show Me State offers a prime opening for Santorum to build on his earlier victory in neighboring Iowa.

Mitt Romney won a decisive victory last night in Florida, carrying 46 percent of the vote. Let’s take a close look at how he did it.

In his last work, The Responsible Electorate (1966), the great scholar V.O. Key argued against the thinking of political scientists of his age that the mass public was too ill-informed to make wise decisions:           

As they shift focus to education-reform star Florida, GOP presidential candidates would do well to join the host of Americans and legislators marking School Choice Week this week with rallies, speeches, gatherings, and general enthusiasm.

After two combative debates in South Carolina that helped change the trajectory of the Republican race, the first of two debates in Florida was relatively low key and seems unlikely to change anything.

Saturday’s South Carolina primary featured a number of firsts: