COMMENTARY | NBC News reports that on Feb.11, Mitt Romney won the Republican caucuses in Maine with 39 percent of the votes, barely beating Ron Paul, who had 36 percent of the votes. As the competition continues, here is how I feel the Maine caucuses impact the future of the race for the nomination.
The Maine caucuses show that the Republican Party is still facing a divide, especially considering that Newt Gingrich placed fourth with only 6 percent of the votes. This will not hurt Gingrich in the long run, because he has been doing very well, although he might not be able to compete at the same level as Romney. Rick Santorum came into third place with 18 percent of the votes, which is not very good considering he won the three previous caucuses. With Paul coming in second place, it shows that the Republican Party is still divided on many key issues, including the economy.
Since Romney only beat out Paul by 3 percent, it shows that there is still a lot that Romney needs to do in order to sure his nomination for the Republican Party. Romney needs to start enticing the Paul base, if that is possible, and he really needs to hit Santorum on key issues. This competition will likely come down to the wire for the Republican Party, since each caucus basically shows a different result, and there is no clear-cut winner. The fact that each of the candidates stay within reach of each other shows that there is a real lack of a true nominee, and this might hurt the Republican Party come election time.
Romney is most likely going to win the nomination, but there will be a true divide within the Republican Party, because not everyone is excited with his policies. If or when the three other candidates concede, they will all need to try to get their bases behind Romney, in order to achieve the goal of ousting President Barack Obama. Paul supporters are very loyal, so that is the base where Romney needs to continue to go after, and hope that he can sway some voters by election time. The caucuses in Maine really do not change the competition at this point in time, even though Romney won, since it was such a close race between him and Paul. Maine proves the theory that this race is going to continue for a long time, as long as the candidates can keep competing financially with Romney.
Myself, Personal Opinion
NBC News Staff and MSNBC News Staff, “Romney breaks losing streak, wins Maine caucuses”, MSNBC