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.....I would rather have had Gingrich be this person, back in January. He so looked like it for a little while, but even with Santorum doing nothing in Florida, Gingrich simply couldn’t hold up under the attacks. Santorum has done much better in that regard, getting plastered 5-1 in Michigan, and 12-1 in Ohio, and yet he’s still winning races, even in 3-way contests in the south with Gingrich splitting large amounts of the conservative vote.

Santorum has never endured the hammering Newt got from Mitt and his PAC in Fla ($2million/day for 10 days) and Newt still pulled over 30% of the vote and won a majority of the congressional districts. Again it was Santorum at the bottom of the pile and all the voters had left. Do not be fooled. If Newt is dispatched from this primary, Mitt and his machine will roll over Santorum.

Newt is not "splitting" the vote. Newt is keeping his supporters onboard and protecting the conservative flank.

won a majority of the congressional districts

Again it was Santorum at the bottom of the pile and all the voters had left.

Both of those statements are wrong, although I don't blame you for the first, several others have claimed that and nobody seems to care to correct the record. On the 2nd, Santorum came in 3rd out of 9 candidates, not "bottom" -- he beat Ron Paul.

Go to this link: Florida Republican Primary Election Results. Select "US President - District" from the pulldown on the left, and you'll get the district-by-district results for the 25 districts.

You will see that Gingrich won a plurality in 3 of the 25 districts, and his BEST district was 42%. And in those 3 districts, he beat Romney by 4%, 1%, and 7%. Romney won the other 22. Worse, Romney won an absolute majority in 7 of those, and 49% in 2 more.

And of the three that Gingrich won, two were also in the top 3 for Santorum. In other words, it looks like where Santorum did the BEST in Florida, it helped Gingrich win the district. Which makes sense because polls at the time showed Santorum took votes from Romney more than Gingrich.

Lastly, if you add ALL of Santorum's votes to Gingrich in Florida, Romney would still win 17 of the 25 districts.

Santorum has never endured the hammering Newt got from Mitt and his PAC in Fla ($2million/day for 10 days)

According to this report:

So far, Romney has bought $5.6 million worth of airtime and the pro-Romney super PAC, Restore Our Future, has shelled out a whopping $8.2 million, according to a Republican media buyer who is tracking ad spending in the state.
Compare that to $837,000 spent by the Gingrich campaign and the nearly $3 million of airtime bought by Winning Our Future,
...
As in five-to-one: that’s the ratio — just about — by which Romney and his allies have outspent Newt Gingrich and his allies on TV.

The dollar figure isn't important, it's the ratio; Florida is a more expsnsive state than say Michigan or Ohio. Santorum had as much spent against him proportionally as Gingrich did.

Romney Advantage in Money over Santorum::

Michigan: Romney/Superpac: $4.3 mil, Santorum/Superpac $2.3 mil (2:1)
Arizona: Romney/Superapc: $660,000; Santorum/Superpac: $52,000: (12:1)

Ohio Advertisement:

Mitt Romney's team has spent the most in Ohio so far; the campaign itself has spent $1.5 million throughout the state, while the Romney-backing Restore Our Future has put up another $2.3 million. [$3.8 mil] ... Rick Santorum is the only other candidate to spend heavily in Ohio; he's dropped $408,000 on ads, while the Red White and Blue Fund has run up a $515,000 tab [$923,000]" - 4:1.

So as you can see, in just three elections in a couple of weeks, Romney spent almost 10 million attacking Santorum, and outspent him by ratios of 2:1, 12:1, and 4:1. Santorum is getting the same treatment Gingrich got.

I hope these facts have been enlightening for you. Please spread the word about the incorrect assertion that GIngrich won the florida district competition.