Although no delegates were at stake in the two caucuses and one primary election held on Tuesday night, the fact that Rick Santorum swept all three races — Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado — is definitely significant, despite what Mitt Romney's flacks will be pushing today.
The former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator was expected to do well in the first two states — but Mitt Romney was hailed by every "reliable" pollster as a shoo-in in Colorado. Yet the final results there show Santorum beating out the former Massachusetts governor by 5 percentage points, 40-35 (Newt Gingrich received 13 percent of the vote and Ron Paul 12 percent).
Although Santorum is getting the love this morning, do you really believe he'll be giving the nomination speech in Tampa on August 30? He could be, but the bigger story is about the man who is still expected to give that speech — Mitt Romney — and why he can't close the deal with the GOP electorate.
With Santo's sweep, he actually has taken more states than Romney in the early going (4 to 3), with 42 more states to go.
Oh, and by the way, in Missouri — a "beauty contest" primary with no delegates at stake in which Romney didn't compete — Santorum blew Romney's socks off, taking 75,000 more votes and winning by 30 percentage points, 55-25. In fact, Romney didn't win in a single Missouri county.