Romney: CNBC Squawk Box Interview / Gingrich, Santorum, Paul: Futile Delegate Chase? / Unify!

Because Super Tuesday is now in the rear view mirror, Mitt Romney supporters are breathing a little easier and enjoying a super Wednesday.

With Romney’s solid victories from Alaska to Vermont, we can see the path to the GOP nomination clearly (more on that in a moment). No rest for Governor Romney, however. He was up bright and early in Newton, MA to be interviewed on CNBC’s Squawk Box. He spoke about election results, Obama’s failed policies, jobs, economy, entitlements, and more:

● Romney on uniting different factions of the party if he’s the nominee:

“. . . When we we have a nominee, we will come together because Barack Obama has organized a conservative community. … The community organizer has organized us in a big way. We’re going to come together because we really believe he needs to be replaced – that he’s over his head, that the debt he’s amassed, the jobs he has not created – suggest that this is a guy whose time has come for early retirement.”

● Sidenote: Several days ago, when Sarah Palin stated on FOX News that the candidate who really focuses on gasoline prices would be the one to support, one didn’t have to rub a crystal ball to know that Newt Gingrich would somehow, out of thin air, come up with a gas plan real quick. Sure enough, the very next day, Gingrich announced his $2.50 per gallon meme. Now, he thinks he OWNS the issue. Wrong. Romney has been strongly advocating for energy independence since 2007, wrote extensively about it in his book No Apology (published spring 2010), and, at every opportunity, continues to stress the importance of using our own energy resources. (It’s no secret Palin voted yesterday for Gingrich.)

● During today’s interview, Romney spoke again on gasoline prices:

Are you happy with high gasoline prices in part because this administration has not been willing to take in energy from other places across America? . . . I think people recognize that the president can’t precisely set the price at the pump, but he can decide how much of the money that’s being paid for oil and gas is going to other nations. And, to get that money staying here and to create jobs here and to stabilize prices here, he ought to be taking advantage of all of our offshore and ANWAR and North Dakota and Oklahoma and Texas oil and gas resources instead of trying to hold them off. Natural gas is a huge win for us. And, through the EPA, he’s been trying to hold that off. Coal is, of course, a major source of our electric power. He’s made it more difficult to get the coal, more difficult to use the coal. And, of course, the Keystone Pipeline bringing energy in from Canada, that was a no-brainer. He failed that test. If we want to get America energy secure, you have to take advantage of the energy resources we have. And, fortunately, with recent discoveries from Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio, there’s a lot of energy in this country. Let’s take advantage of it.

Entire transcript may be found here.

● Among the varied post-Super Tuesday analysis, we read ‘Romney is a frail frontrunner’. Uh huh. He’s so frail he has more than double the delegates Santorum has and Gingrich and Paul have been left in the campaign dust. No, talking heads. Romney is a formidable frontrunner. Today, Hugh Hewitt pointed out a fact the mainstream media is missing (and gave MRC a nod, as well):

Doing the Math on Romney’s Path

David Parker is a very smart and successful businessman, a Romney guy, and an occasional contributor to the blog MittRomneyCentral. He is close to the Romney campaign, so I read his posts and emails with care, and found this bit of math from his missive on Wednesday morning to be the sort of analysis missing from the MSM as it sifts through Romney’s big night Tuesday. It may emerge in other places today, as it must be a reflection of the thinking inside the Romney campaign:

From a pragmatic point of analysis, there is NO scenario wherein Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich, or anyone else other than Mitt Romney can accumulate the needed 1,144 delegates; unless of course that Mitt Romney withdraws, which is not likely!

In varying simulations, given the apportionment of delegates under the current Republican process, if Rick Santorum began to win a majority of campaigns, he would still fall woefully short of 1,144 – and it is even worse for Newt Gingrich. Mitt Romney is the only candidate who is positioned to win at least 1,144 and, in the varying simulations run, will achieve far more than the minimum. With proportional allocations and 851 of 2,286 delegates having been through the primary/caucus process; Mitt Romney has won nearly 50% (he has also won 14 of 22 states), Rick Santorum has won about 19% and Gingrich has won about 12%. From another vantage point, Mitt has to win approximately 50% of the remaining delegates, Santorum and Gingrich have to win approximately 70% and 73%, respectively. Even if Santorum or Gingrich were to convince nearly 90% of the unbound delegates to support them, they would still fall short. Pragmatically, it is finished.

Continue reading here.

● From Rich Beeson (on Romney’s website):

Our Opponents’ Last Stand: A Postmortem
March 7, 2012

Yesterday’s six wins come on top of five consecutive wins leading up to Super Tuesday. Governor Romney now has more than twice as many delegates as Senator Santorum and four times more than Speaker Gingrich. He has won twice as many states as Senator Santorum and seven times more than Speaker Gingrich. Governor Romney won 60% of Super Tuesday states. By contrast, in 2008 John McCain won only 41% (9 of 21) of the Super Tuesday states.

Beeson then outlines the slim opportunities ahead for the opposition. He concludes:

Super Tuesday dramatically reduced the likelihood that any of Governor Romney’s opponents can obtain the Republican nomination. As Governor Romney’s opponents attempt to ignore the basic principles of math, the only person’s odds of winning they are increasing are President Obama’s.

Read more here.

● In the Hewitt post above, David Parker stated there is no way Santorum or Gingrich can accumulate 1,144 delegates to win – unless Romney withdraws (no chance!). That’s why Gingrich is whining about this (Warning: Do not read the following with liquid in mouth; burst of laughter will propel liquid across computer screen.):

Newt aide: No, Mitt should drop out
By Alexander Burns
March 7, 2012

Newt Gingrich adviser Vince Haley rejected a call from the Rick Santorum super PAC for his candidate to get out of the 2012 race – and argued this morning that it’s Mitt Romney, rather than Gingrich or Santorum, who’s making a mess of the Republican primary.
[...]
“I think he should bow out of the race so that conservatives can have a debate” about how to take on Obama, Haley said. “It’s Mitt Romney who’s screwing up this race and it’s his establishment support” that’s sustaining him over the hesitations of the GOP electorate.

That cheerful Newt… he’s a laugh a minute.

As Michele Bachmann stated today on Cavuto (FOX News), voters want to wrap up this process. Stating “there were no surprises last night” and questioning where future break-out moments will be, she wants tea partiers, evangelicals, independents, democrats, and libertarians to come together to defeat Obama next fall.

Good advice, Congresswoman. Especially when we have an exceptional frontrunner, Governor Mitt Romney, who is very uniquely prepared to rescue our failing nation. And, math is math. (Dick Morris agrees.)

It’s time to UNIFY.

Romney 2012.

(emphasis added to articles)

► Jayde Wyatt