No Cause to Cheer for GOP
by Michael Medved

If you’re a Republican operative or office holder, still dreaming of a quick, clean end to the punishing primary process, where’s the good news in the unsettling returns from Alabama and Mississippi?

Yes, there is one small scrap of encouragement for GOP loyalists who actually hope to win elections in November: the “Ron Paul Revolution” looks less and less relevant and, therefore, less and less threatening to the future of the party.

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Santorum Whistling Dixie
by Howard Kurtz

Rick Santorum extended his David-vs.-Goliath run in the Republican primaries on Tuesday night, rolling to projected victories in tight-as-a-tick contests in Alabama and Mississippi.

While Mitt Romney performed respectably on turf that was culturally foreign to him, the apparent failure to win is a huge setback for southerner Newt Gingrich, who will undoubtedly face louder calls to abandon the race and allow Santorum a clear shot at stopping the front-runner.

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Romney’s Dixie Debacle
by Paul Begala

Let me be the first to call on Mitt Romney to get out of the race. By placing third in Alabama and Mississippi, losing to Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich in both states, Romney has gone from inevitable to unelectable. Somebody strap him to the roof of one of his Cadillacs and drive him off to one of his many mansions.

One of the great legends of political consulting is the Dog Food Problem: an apocryphal tale of a company that had the best packaging, the best advertising, the best marketing. But there was only one problem: the dog wouldn't eat it. Forevermore we should no longer call it a Dog Food Problem. We should call it a Mitt Romney Problem.

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Romney’s Rough Night
by Andrew Sullivan

Rick Santorum captured not one but two Southern states on Tuesday night even after Mitt Romney had the backing of Mississippi’s political establishment and a big money advantage. Andrew Sullivan on Santorum’s big wins.

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Romney Barely Hanging On
by Michael Tomasky

So the results of the Scopes primary are in, and they are, in a way, not surprising. It doesn’t matter really who, whether Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich, won Alabama or Mississippi. It’s great for Santorum that he won them. Bravo. But what matters even more for political analysis is that Mitt Romney finished third in both.

I should say that the great joke of Tuesday night—the joke on celebrating liberals, which they should very much keep in mind—is that, assuming (should one still write “assuming”?) Romney is the GOP nominee, he will win these two states in November hands down. He couldn’t possibly lose them against Barack Obama. People sometimes lose sight of that.

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Gingrich Won’t Quit, but He’ll Make Sure Romney Doesn’t Win
by Patricia Murphy

What happens to a Southern strategy when a candidate can’t win in the South?

Newt Gingrich found out Tuesday night, with twin losses in Alabama and Mississippi one week after a big win in his home state of Georgia and an earlier victory in South Carolina. In Alabama, Gingrich lost to Rick Santorum, 35 percent to 30 percent, with Romney finishing two points back at 28 percent. Next door in Mississippi, Gingrich lost narrowly, but lost nonetheless, with 31 percent of the vote to Santorum’s 33 percent and Romney’s 30 percent.

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