DCRepublican.com

Tue 29 Jan 2008

Even though Mitt Romney didn’t have a first place finish in Florida, the Republican race for the White House is far from over. If anything, I think that Rudy finally leaving the race will truly make it a true election. With Huckabee pretty much being a non-factor at this point, the race has come down to Mitt Romney and John McCain.

Looking at the latest CNN delegate count, after winning Florida, McCain will have 95 delegates and Romney falls in second with 75.

While the media is saying that McCain is now THE  candidate for the Republican Party, I don’t think that any judgment can be made before Super Tuesday.

Both candidates have won 3 states, but only Mitt Romney has 3 second place finishes (or “silvers”) to add to his tally sheet. McCain on the other hand, has only 1 second place finish, and 2 third place finishes.

Even with that aside, the real fight is going to be on Super Tuesday.

Both McCain and Romney are going to have to fight extremely hard to get the necessary delegate count to pull ahead with a solid lead, and at this point I think that its anyones game.

There are a lot of “winner takes all” states, as well as “winner takes all + bonus” states up for grabs on Super Tuesday, and with Rudy leaving the race, I think that some of these races will become even tighter.

Now that Rudy is going to be endorsing McCain, I am hopeful that Fred Thompson will come out and counter that surge by throwing his support behind Romney. If this is done, there will be a clear distinction as to who is the true and feux conservative. With Rudy behind McCain, conservatives will see that as a weak ticket for advancing a true conservative agenda. This will give Romney a great advantage to take charge as “THE conservative candidate” in the race.

With tomorrows debate being at the Reagan Library, I expect this to be an opportunity for Romney to emphasize his conservative values, his inspiration from Reagan and come down harder than ever on Senator McCain.