The Big GOP Primary Thread: Southbound And Down

The South is covered in a thin, nauseating layer of Santorum this morning as Slick Rick took Alabama by 6 points, 35% to 29% for both Gingrich and Romney, and Mississippi by 2 points, 33% to Newt's 31% and Mitt's 30%.

And yes, this means Romney came in third in both contests.  He did make up some ground by winning Hawaii with 45% of the vote to Santorum's 25%.  But the fact is, Romney can't close the deal with the most strident members of the base and he now has a serious problem on his hands.

That means, of course, that the GOP has a major problem on its hands. Yes, when Romney is finally nominated, Republicans will get behind him...but not all of them.  He got 30% or less in Alabama and Mississippi, and you can't tell me that there won't be Republican voters there will stay home and do nothing rather than vote for Romney.

The battle now moves on to open primaries in Puerto Rico this weekend and Illinois on Tuesday, Puerto Rico's contest is winner-take-all and Illinois's 69 delegates are a bigger haul than even Ohio, and a week from Saturday is Louisiana's contest and Missouri's convention caucus.   After that, we head into April, including New York and Pennsylvania on April 24.

It's looking more and more like Romney may not be able to wrap up the 1,144 delegates he'll need by the convention.  If that starts becoming clear, expect the pressure on Gingrich to really heat up.