No Contest: Romney Wins Florida

Super PAC cash set to keep rivals going

(NEWSER) - Mitt Romney won huge in Florida , but this race isn't over yet. Here's what the pundits are taking away from this one:

• Romney has a much tougher fight ahead than John McCain did at this stage in 2008, analysts tell the LA Times . The reason: super PACs. In the past, primary defeats cut off a candidate's fundraising, but now deep-pocket donors, like Newt Gingrich's pal Sheldon Adelson , can keep shoveling in cash.

Florida ads expensive, Mitt rivals low on funds

(NEWSER) - The race for the GOP nomination may suddenly be more competitive than experts predicted, but in the next big primary state, Florida, Mitt Romney has the airwaves pretty much all to himself, reports the Los Angeles Times . Florida is one of the more expensive ad markets in the nation, and running ads in the state's 10 major media markets can run $2 million a week. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich each have a surprising win in early primary battles, but neither has much cash left—and Ron Paul has decided not to put much effort into the state because he has long polled badly there. More»

...And a lot of spin afterward

(NEWSER) - History suggests that it doesn’t matter who actually wins tonight in Iowa—it matters who exceeds expectations, or fails to meet them. The media is always flabbergasted by strange Iowa finishes, but they shouldn’t be, writes Nate Silver of the New York Times , because thanks to unreliable polls they happen all the time, and seem especially likely this year. “A wide range of outcomes remain possible in Iowa even at this late hour,” he warns, and as you can see, his final predictions contain wide margins of error: More»

Even though Santorum didn't bow out until April 10

(NEWSER) - No one's been nominated yet—but the media crowned Mitt Romney the winner of the GOP primaries after he took Michigan on Feb. 28, a Pew report finds. Of course, Romney didn't essentially seal the deal until Rick Santorum dropped out. That happened on April 10, weeks after the media had effectively called the race for Romney, finds the report, which tracked 11,000 news outlets from Jan. 2 to April 15. After Feb. 28, we saw "a suddenly intense discussion of 'delegate math' and the conclusion that no other candidate could win," explains the report's co-author. More»

Santorum's Pennsylvania lead vanishes

(NEWSER) - Most Republicans believe there are two too many candidates still seeking their party's nomination, according to the latest CNN poll . The poll found that roughly 60% of the GOP want Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul to call it a day, while a similar proportion want Rick Santorum to stick around. But neither Gingrich nor Paul appear likely to drop out: Gingrich has big plans for the Republican National Convention and when Piers Morgan asked Ron Paul about dropping out, the Texan told him not to "pester me with silly questions." More»