And before you irrelevantly claim that because Santorum won those two, they don’t count, because you didn’t mean states that Santorum won, that Newt could’ve won, but rather you meant states Romney won that Newt could’ve won...
Don’t bother, that’s ridiculous.
If you claim the two are competing for the same votes, then any close state between those two, regardless who won the state, is a state that Santorum’s presence caused Newt to lose.
Both AL and MS were close enough between those two, if they were drawing from the same voters, Newt would’ve cleaned up like he did in SC and GA, if Santorum had not been there.
It’s still not votesplitting. What happened in MS and AL was voter preference.
Santorum won enough votes in both to overcome Newt, and Newt finishing second, means that conservative voters preferred Santorum to Newt.
This is why MS and AL were so important to Newt, because he needed them to have any hope of continuing on. It’s also why when he lost that his vote total has dropped off so dramatically.
Vote splitting by Santorum, would be a state where Newt finished ahead of Santorum, but Santorum prevented him from winning.
As we saw happen in Ohio, Michigan, Wyoming and Alaska, where Newt split the conservative vote permitting Romney to come up the middle.
Both AL and MS were close enough between those two, if they were drawing from the same voters, Newt would’ve cleaned up like he did in SC and GA, if Santorum had not been there.
Plus the fact, CNN exit polls showed 6000 democrats voted for him in both AL and MS, which was far beyond the margin of victory.
And then there's this:
"An honest résumé on Santorum would read: 1) I was present in congress when Newt Gingrich was successful; 2) I voted for everything I am running against now. Still, Santorum would be able to derail the Gingrich campaign… and that is what the RNC was counting on. You’re welcome Mitt!
Conservatives need to pay attention to how he stayed in until now… once again, they will get what they deserve for supporting a candidate willing to use such underhanded tactics in the race.
But in Tennessee, they tried a different underhanded tactic and succeeded… Hours before the election, Santorum met with several state delegates declared on the ballot for Gingrich, one even the Co-Chair of the Gingrich campaign, convincing them to switch to Santorum delegates even though the state ballots declared them all for Gingrich.
It amounted to election fraud, as millions of Tennessee Gingrich supporters cast vote after vote for Gingrich delegates that had quietly switched to Santorum hours before the election. The old backroom switcheroo had worked and Santorum won Tennessee, snatching the number two spot in the GOP race from Gingrich for the first time.
As I write this morning, Santorum demonstrates just how far out of check his ego really is by suggesting that he would consider Newt Gingrich for his running mate. As we used to say in my old football days, Santorum can’t carry Newt’s jock strap… He isn’t qualified for more than Newt’s water boy!"
The rest is already written…One need only understand that united defeats divided every single time.
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2012/03/09/gop-defeating-itself-again/
The article has some good sound numbers on just how effectively the establishment succeeded in dividing the conservative vote, the same as 2008, allowing romney to slip in - the way huck did for mccain.
The GOP is afraid of Newt's baggage. The evangelicals won't forgive him - after all, they have a saint to rally round. Those are the only two reasons Newt isn't winning. And those aren't reasons enough to give up... or give in.