Wall Street Willie Ekes Out Michigan Win

Wall Street Willie (Willard Mitt Romney) was all smiles last night. He won the Arizona primary handily, which surprised no one. He had the support of John McCain and Governor Brewer, and a fairly large population of mormons, so he was expected to win there. Michigan was different.

He was only able to beat Rick Santorum by about three percentage points in Michigan. He carried the urban areas, especially the Detroit area, but like in some other states he lost all of the rural counties. In fact, while Romney got more total votes in the state, Santorum actually carried a greater number of counties. That will probably result in Santorum winning a healthy number of delegates in the state.

Back in 2008, Romney beat McCain (who finished second in the state) by slightly more than 9 points in Michigan and took 24 of the 30 delegates. This year, he was able to beat Santorum by only 3 points and will probably not get 24 delegates. It may be a symbolic one, but that has to be considered a victory by Santorum -- considering that Michigan was where Romney was born and raised. Romney is still having trouble winning over the Republican base -- with nearly 60% of the Republican voters in his home state opting for someone else.

Here are the results from both states:

MICHIGAN (98% reporting)
Mitt Romney...............402,530  (41.08%)
Rick Santorum...............371,071  (37.87%)
Ron Paul...............113,838  (11.62%)
Newt Gingrich...............63,960  (6.53%)
Uncommitted...............18,453  (1.88%)
Others...............10,085  (1.03%)
TOTAL VOTES...............979,937

ARIZONA (86% reporting)
Mitt Romney...............214,846  (47.34%)
Rick Santorum...............120,385  (26.53%)
Newt Gingrich...............73,383  (16.17%)
Ron Paul...............38,384  (8.46%)
Others...............6,818  (1.50%)
TOTAL VOTES...............453,816

Now it's on to the Washington caucuses on Saturday (March 3rd), and then the primaries and caucuses of 10 states on Super Tuesday (March 6th). The question now is will the wins last night help Wall Street Willie in those 11 states. I don't think they will. If anything, the story going forward will be that Romney was barely able to win his home state.

Currently Romney is trailing in Washington and all the Super Tuesday states where polls have been done. Santorum is leading in Ohio, Oklahoma, Washington, and Tennessee. Gingrich is leading in his home state of Georgia. The latest poll released in one for Georgia. Here are the numbers:

SURVEY USA POLL (Georgia)
Newt Gingrich...............39%
Rick Santorum...............24%
Mitt Romney...............23%
Ron Paul...............9%
Undecided...............5%