After the one horse race in Puerto Rico during the weekend, Mitt Romney has high hopes of the Illinois primary, courtesy of big spending and Rick Santorum.
Santorum's comments about not giving priority to economy or unemployment has hit him badly despite all the rectification measures taken by him afterwards. Romney, coming from a business background can easily score political mileage from such weak points. This has cleared his path in a race which otherwise could have been a close one.
Even without the negative comments, Santorum may have lost in the race for the delegates as his campaign had not done their homework properly. Due to lapses in submission of documentation, he would have been unable to claim about 10 delegates. As this is not the first time this happened (Ohio was another notable example) it showed an unpreparedness on Santorum's side. This lapse would have given Romney a lead in that aspect even if he had narrowly lost in the popular vote.
Yet, Romney was never going to give up despite this. He and his allies are the big spenders in Illinois also. Romney, who now seem to be the most likely candidate in the November 2012 election would like to show his strength to President Obama. Illinois, while being the "Land of Lincoln" is also the State of Obama. While Democrats including Obama have managed to convert the state to the Democratic camp in recent years, the GOP is gaining lost ground as it was seen in the mid term elections of 2010.
The Republican race has now becoming largely a battle between Romney and Santorum. Gingrich is doing a great service to Romney by staying on to split the conservative vote and Ron Paul is destined to be the permanent underdog. Although Romney may not still have the mettle to deliver the "killer punch" he may hit a few good blows if he win convincingly in Illinoi.
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