Mitt wins Maine; McCain, Paul vie for 2nd

Will Maine crush John McCain's evil heart? It looks like the state where Ross Perot beat George H. W. Bush is once again bucking conventional wisdom, giving Mitt Romney a convincing victory and throwing the nominee-presumptive-presumptive* into a dogfight for second place with Ron Paul:

Mitt Romney appeared to be on his way to a win in presidential preference voting by Maine Republicans as returns were counted Saturday from the party's municipal caucuses, turning the contest into a race for the No. 2 spot.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, had 52% of the vote with 57% of the towns holding caucuses reporting. John McCain trailed with 22%, Ron Paul was third with 19%, and Mike Huckabee had 5%. ...

Besides Paul, who visited Maine on Monday, Romney was the only candidate to show up or send a surrogate to campaign as the caususes drew close. His oldest son Tagg campaigned Friday and appeared at caucuses Saturday.

There are still some more caucuses to be held tomorrow -- it's a three-day event -- so Paul could still potentially pass McCain. But I don't think anyone is going to catch the Stormin' Mormon.

The question is, will this lead to a surge of Mitt-mentum that will carry Romney to a surprise showing on Tuesday? I doubt it. But hey, give the man credit: he's really good at winning these tiny caucuses that nobody else pays attention to. First we're going to go to Wyoming!! And then we're going to go to Maine!! And then we're going to Washington, D.C. to take back the White House!! YEAAAARRH!!!!!

P.S. I don't actually think John McCain has an evil heart. It's just a lyric from a silly song I like.

*He's not the nominee-presumptive yet, but it's presumed that he will become such after Tuesday's results come in. Hence, "nominee-presumptive-presumptive." :)

Comments

[JD]

Actually, I'd probably go with "presumptive presumptive nominee."