Mitt Romney should thank Rick Santorum. Romneycrushed the rest of the Republican field in PuertoRico. Santorum helped him do it.
But Romney is misreading the results. He says thewin means he's got enough Latino support to beatPresident Obama. It doesn't.
Santorum was Romney's biggest threat on theisland. He was fresh off of twin wins in theAlabama and Mississippi primaries, and people weretalking about him derailing Romney's run for theRepublican nomination. But in two days he spent inPuerto Rico, Santorum managed to harpoon hiscampaign's chances with just two words: "SpeakEnglish."
As the flames engulfed him, Santorum seemed onlyable to pour more fuel on the fire. He tried toexplain that when he said Puerto Ricans would berequired to speak English if they want to become astate, he only meant as the island's principlelanguage.
Not good enough.
One delegate withdrew his pledged support forSantorum. Outraged elected officials there lashedout at him.
After that, even Romney's insistence on trying tohurt himself with Puerto Rico's voters - byrepeating his comments that he wouldn't havesupported Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor --couldn't help Santorum.
Sotomayor, the first Latina on the U.S. SupremeCourt bench and the Bronx-born child of PuertoRican parents, is something of a national hero onthe island. So saying he wouldn't have supportedher, and that Santorum was wrong to vote for herconfirmation back as a federal circuit judge backin 1998, is an affront to Puerto Ricans.
The issue first surfaced at the beginning of themonth, when Romney ran radio ads faulting Santorumfor his vote.
"They forget that Judge Sotomayor is an icon forthe Latino community," Angelo Falcon, president ofthe National Institute for Latino Policy, saidthen. "It's like attacking Martin Luther King orGeorge Washington,for blacks and whites."
Romney stuck to his guns during his whirlwind,one-day visit to the island Friday.
"In looking at Justice Sotomayor, my view was herphilosophy is quite different than my own andthat's the reason why I would not support her as ajustice for the Supreme Court," Romney toldreporters, minutes after landing in San Juan. "Iwould be happy to have a justice of Puerto Ricandescent or a Puerto Rican individual on theSupreme Court, but they would have to share myphilosophy, that comes first."
In the battle to see who could do the most self-inflicted damage to their own campaigns, though,the results show Santorum won handily. With 81percent of the precincts reporting Monday morning,Romney was beating Santorum 10 to 1. The formerMassachusetts governor had 88 percent of the votescast, to Santorum's 8.5 percent. Newt Gingrich andRon Paul barely showed up. Gingrich had 2.2percent; Paul had 1.3.
It's an important victory for Romney. It couldgive him 22 of Puerto Rico's 23 delegates, and addto his already sizeable lead in the race to getthe necessary 1,144 delegates needed for the GOPnomination.
But in patting himself on the back as the resultscame in, Romney took it too far.
"Those people who don't think that Latinos willvote for a Republican need to take a look inPuerto Rico," Romney told a crowd of supporters inVernon Hills, Ill., where he was alreadycampaigning ahead of Tuesday's Illinois primary.
"Hispanic voters are going to vote for Republicansif we stand for something: conservative principlesthat bring growth and good jobs and rising homevalues," he continued. "I intend to become ournominee and I intend to get Latino voters to votefor a Republican."
He's right. He most likely will get Latino votes.Just not many.
A recent Fox News Latino poll shows 14 percent ofHispanic voters supporting him if he faces ObamainNovember.
Puerto Rico's primary might be proof.
Because Puerto Rico is a commonwealth, and not astate, none of the people there get to vote inNovember. Still, what happened there Sunday mightbe an indication of what's to come.
The island is known for its historically highvoter turnout. About 79 percent of the registeredvoters cast ballots in 2008. That wasn't unusual.Sunday, somewhere around a little more than110,000 voters - presumably Republicans, andpresumably almost entirely Latinos - voted there.
But there are more than 2.4 million registeredvoters in Puerto Rico.
It's impossible to tell how many voters areDemocrats and how many are Republicans. If Sundayis any indication, though, either the Republicancandidates are not inspiring any real enthusiasm,or better than 95 percent of the voters on theisland identify with Democrats.
So Romney can spin it any way he wants, but thetruth is that's a real problem for the Republicansin November.
