If you go to Real Clear Politics and take a close look at the actual numbers of this primary race, you’ll reach some startling conclusions: The primary is all but over, and it wasn’t even close.
Mitt is dominating the popular vote. He’s got almost 50 percent more votes than Santorum, and he’s inching ever-closer to the combined Santorum-Gingrich total. As for delegates, he has more than all his competitors combined — and that’s in a contest dominated by proportional allocations, not winner-take-all primaries.
There’s no “game change” looming on the horizon, and the deep south has largely already voted. Mitt was far more competitive there than his opponents were in many other states. In short, he’s fought hard everywhere and won most contests.
Santorum has delayed the sense of inevitability in part by persuading the media to focus only on the races that Santorum chose to emphasize. Why, for example, were the eyes of the world focused only on Michigan rather than also on the winner-take-all state of Arizona? Why was Ohio the only relevant prize on Super Tuesday? Santorum ran an outstanding campaign in part because he was always able to appear stronger than he was.
But now it’s over. Gingrich and Santorum may not recognize it yet, but they will. And we’ll shortly unite behind Mitt and focus on the real target — Barack Obama.
(Disclaimer.)