How Mitt Romney Wins Florida
Photo Credit: JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES By the end, it had become a matter of margins. Would Mitt Romney defeat Newt Gingrich in Florida’s Republican primary? Or would Romney obliterate his opponent, reestablishing himself as the race’s undisputed frontrunner? It didn’t take long to find out. Even before the polls closed, it was clear Romney had reduced Gingrich to a thin, bitter pile of moon dust. Romney won the Florida primary on Tuesday, commanding 47% of the vote, a solid victory in the massive, diverse swing state. Gingrich took second with 32%, followed by Rick Santorum at 13% and Ron Paul, who did not campaign there, at 7%. The victory awarded Romney the biggest prize of the primary season to date, 50 winner-take-all delegates to the August nominating convention in Tampa and an unmistakable show of strength in one of the nation’s most important general-election bellwethers. The former Massachusetts governor exploited early and absentee voti