It’s almost over. That was the message from Illinois on Tuesday
night, where Mitt Romney scored another commanding primary victory,
outpacing his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination again
and padding a delegate lead that’s beginning to look insurmountable.
With 63% of precincts reporting, Romney led chief rival Rick Santorum
47%-35%. The statewide popular vote is pure pageantry in Illinois—it
elects its delegates in its 15 congressional districts—but that didn’t
soften Romney’s victory. The AP put 41 delegates in Romney’s column and just 10 in Santorum’s.
All of his traditional strengths were on display: he did well in big
cities and their suburbs, among the affluent, the well-educated and
those who care more about beating Obama than elected a “true
conservative.” In an election night speech to supporters in Illinois,
Romney delivered a version of his latest stump speech, a pure strain of
general election stem-winder focused on President Obama –“too many
apologies and not enough jobs”–that barely mentioned anything about a
Republican race.
