Santorum Takes Mississippi And Alabama

(The above picture is from the political section of The New Yorker website.)

Wall Street Willie (aka Willard Mitt Romney) was hoping to pull off a surprise victory in either Mississippi or Alabama, especially after getting the popular Southern comedian Jeff Foxworthy to campaign for him. A win in either state would have dispelled the perception that he just can't win in the Deep South. But even Jeff Foxworthy was not enough to get Romney over the hump in either of those states. He finished third in both states.

Meanwhile, it was a big night for Rick Santorum. There had been some doubt in the last few days as to whether he could beat Newt Gingrich in the Deep South (since Gingrich is a Southerner and Santorum is not), but Santorum cemented his claim as the official "anti-Romney" candidate with wins in both states. After tonight, Gingrich has a very tough row to hoe. Here are the numbers for both states:

MISSISSIPPI (99% reporting)
Rick Santorum...............92,843  (32.90%)
Newt Gingrich...............88,333  (31.30%)
Mitt Romney...............85,579  (30.32)
Ron Paul...............12,456  (4.41%)
Others...............3,016  (1.07%)
TOTAL VOTES...............282,227

ALABAMA (97% reporting)
Rick Santorum...............204,333  (34.54%)
Newt Gingrich...............173,303  (29.30%)
Mitt Romney...............171,261  (28.95%)
Ron Paul...............29,432  (4.98%)
Others...............13,230  (2.24%)
TOTAL VOTES...............591,559

The results are not in yet from Hawaii (20 delegates) and American Samoa (9 delegates). Mitt Romney needs to do very well in both places to avoid Tuesday being a disastrous day for him.

Here is the primary/caucus schedule for the remainder of March. Missouri will caucus on March 17th (Saturday). Puerto Rico will hold its primary on March 18th (Sunday). The Illinois primary is on March 20th (Tuesday). And the final contest of the month will be in Louisiana on March 24th (Saturday).

I don't have a clue as to what will happen in Puerto Rico, but Santorum won the "beauty contest" vote in Missouri by a large margin and has to be the favorite in that state's caucuses. Romney, a few days ago, was holding a slight lead over Santorum in Illinois -- thanks to voters in the Chicago area (but he's polling poorly downstate). And the first poll for Louisiana has just been released. Here are those numbers:

WWL-TV POLL (Louisiana)
Rick Santorum...............25%
Mitt Romney...............21%
Newt Gingrich...............20%
Ron Paul...............6%
Undecided...............26%

It still looks like it will be a long hard slog before a nominee is chosen (and a brokered convention is still a possibility).

UPDATE -- Wall Street Willie was able to finally save a little face with Tuesday's results. The territory of American Samoa gave him all 9 of their delegates. He was also able to come in first in the Hawaii caucus -- although he didn't get a majority of the votes there and will have to share those delegates with Santorum and Paul (and possibly Gingrich). Here are the numbers:

HAWAII (99% reporting)
Mitt Romney...............3,235  (44.99%)
Rick Santorum...............1,822  (25.34%)
Ron Paul...............1,335  (18.57%)
Newt Gingrich...............798  (11.10%)
TOTAL VOTES...............7,190