NBC, CNN and Fox News are calling Alabama for Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Mississippi, caught in a three-way split, is still being marked as too close to call.
Santorum took 34% of the Alabama vote, seizing 13 delegates with 58% of the vote calculated. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich coming in second with 30%, Mitt Romney came in third with 28% of the vote and Ron Paul trailed with 8% of the voted.
So what does this mean? It means the Republicans still have a serious problem on their hands. Mitt Romney failed miserably at his attempt to appear like a regular guy with some painful attempts at Southern jargon this morning. Romney couldn't even beat Gingrich. But this should not really be a surprise, given that Alabama and Mississippi are tagged as being the most evangelical and conservative voters in the country. Romney is just coming off as being too country club to appeal to Joe Blow America. Republican voters are still iffy about Romney, despite the fact that he may be as good as they are going to get. However, Santorum does not have a snow's chance of catering to the moderates in a general election. Gingrich has enough baggage to take him to Saturn and back. Poor Ron Paul is just in denial.
President Obama has slipped drastically in popularity, but this three-way split may very well be his saving grace. Even with the divide being so clear and a projected frontrunner for the Republican Party being so ambiguous, the conservative vote may still steadily stream towards whomever is picked. But my eyes and ears hear conservative voters with ultimatums: "our" guy or the highway.
Whatever the case, the battleground for the general election is moderates and women voters, and superconservatives are rapidly losing appeal with those populations.
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