On Super Tuesday, Rick Santorum is hoping to score on multiple fronts in the wake of coming up short against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Washington Caucus, and Michigan and Arizona primaries.
HuffPost's Jon Ward and Sam Stein report:
Less than a day before 10 states vote on Super Tuesday, Rick Santorum's presidential campaign displayed a new operational wrinkle. For the first time, the candidate jumped on a conference call with reporters.
It was a chance to hammer Mitt Romney as a fraud on health care reform -- philosophically supportive of the same principles as President Barack Obama. But as the former senator spoke, it became hard not to see the call as emblematic of a candidacy on the precipice of serious trouble. A nomination that seemed ripe for his taking just two weeks ago was in danger of being out of his reach. The former senator’s seat-of-the-pants style and lack of formal infrastructure had caught up with him again.
A loss in Ohio Tuesday -- far from certain given the dead heat that the polls show -- would not be the first time Santorum has been hurt by his lack of organization. But it would be the most damaging.
The Polls
HuffPost's Mark Blumenthal reports:
Two final polls from CNN and Time in Ohio and Georgia provide political junkies with more to chew on, but largely confirming what other surveys have been telling us: Ohio remains a very close contest between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, while Newt Gingrich appears poised to win his home state of Georgia by a wide margin.
Meanwhile, the last two automated polls in Tennessee both show support for Gingrich rising while Santorum's margin against Romney shrinks, setting up the possibility of a close three-way finish in that state.
The following ten states are holding primaries or caucuses on Super Tuesday: Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.
Check out the slideshow below for more on the Santorum campaign.
