GOP nomination all but assured, Mitt Romney zooms in on Obama (+video)
Primary wins Tuesday for Mitt Romney in Wisconsin, Maryland, and the District of Columbia make it mathematically improbable that any of his GOP rivals can capture the nomination. That frees Romney and party leaders to train their fire on President Obama.
Ninety-one days after the Iowa caucuses kicked off the 2012 political season, Mitt Romney on Tuesday night all but locked up the Republican presidential nomination, sweeping the Maryland, Wisconsin, and District of Columbia primaries in a show of electoral strength that indicates his party is closing ranks behind him for the coming general election campaign.
Mr. Romney won at least 83 delegates in Tuesday’s contests, according to the Associated Press. That gives him 655 of the 1,144 needed for nomination. Rick Santorum has 278, Newt Gingrich 135, and Ron Paul 51.
Romney’s closest rival, ex-Pennsylvania Senator Santorum, would need to win 80 percent of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination, according to the AP. Given that most of the state contests to come award their delegates proportionately in some manner, that’s a close-to-impossible task.
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