Read it and weep. Santorum missed 10 counties that McCain won, but won 35/45 of the McCain counties. Perry won 2, Paul won 2 and Newt won 6 of 45 McCain counties. The majority of Newt counties came out of Obama counties, not McCain. Clearly Newt's support comes primarily from moderates, not conservatives.Green = Santorum.
Blue = Romney
Yellow = Perry
Red = Paul.
Of the 45 McCain Counties:
Santorum 35/45
Romney 5/45
Perry 1/45
Paul 4/45.
Romney’s 17 counties had 12 Obama/5 McCain
Paul’s 18 counties had 4 Obama/14 McCain
ZERO for Newt.
What you are showing is consequential of Santorum’s ground game. No question he hit the bricks very hard in Iowa and earned his win by being positioned to benefit at the time of the Romney / Paul carpetbombimg crusade against Newt. All of Newt’s lost votes went to Santorum, not for anything earthshaking Rick did, but resulting from noxious attacks against the then-leader Gingrich.
Rick Santorum is a very decent guy and has a bright future. One of his drawbacks is that he is a senator but he has not been a leader of anything. Yes he had a senior spot in the senate caucus, but he’s not like Newt, who served as Speaker. This is big because the Speaker is second in line of presidential succession after VP. There is that term ‘gravitas’ that the liberals loved to use against W in 2000 vs. Gore. Bush lacks gravitas, blah, blah, etc. The liberals, Soviet-style removed any trace of that word in ‘08 when a certain messiah figure entered the scene.
Leaders have a way of drawing people’s attention when they speak, and they inspire people to push themselves forward. They articulate a real cause and tend to draw interest with the force of their personalities, sense of resolve, and credibility drawn from quantifiable accomplishments.
When comparing Santorum against Gingrich, even with Newt’s negatives thrown in, Newt looks far more like a real president among a lot more people than Rick. Newt’s conservative history of accomplishment really has ‘gravitas’. If you take away all the millions spent on destroying Newt or gave him the resources in Iowa to properly respond, Rick Santorum never would have climbed as he did. He was the beneficiary of all that attack money. It doesn’t mean Rick’s bad, but people are responding to the truth that we are fighting for the future of our country, and we need the strongest fighter if we really are to have a chance.
Romney would love to face Rick. He is afraid, very afraid of Newt. Following the money clearly shows that. Some year I may be shoulder to shoulder with you, supporting Rick Santorum for higher office. This is not that year.