Clarity…in a muddled sort of way.

March 7, 2012

With his narrow victory in the Ohio primary, together with wins in five other Super Tuesday states, Mitt Romney has created a delegate lead that Rick Santorum has no hope of overcoming.

What we know as a result of Tuesday’s ten-state primary contest is that the Republican National Convention will assemble in late August in Tampa and that none of Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul will have enough delegates to clinch the nomination.

This much is clear.

What isn’t yet clear is whether Mitt Romney will have the delegates. While the remaining candidates now have no hope of eclipsing Romney’s delegate lead, Romney’s path to the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the nomination remains unclear. Come convention time, Santorum and, to a lesser extent Ron Paul, will be in position to do some serious horse-trading with Romney and the GOP pooh-bahs in order to give Romney the delegate count he needs to become the nominee.

To the chagrin of many Republicans and doubtlessly to the delight of President Obama, it promises to be a long, hot summer for Mitt Romney and the GOP.