Romney out in South, but still should win

Republican primaries and caucuses in the South are looking extremely hard for Mitt Romney to win, but he still stands to take the GOP nomination, especially if he pulls off victories in Ohio and Michigan, according to a new state by state analysis from the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

Their map shows a red brick of anti-Romney states in the southern center of the nation, home to religious conservatives that have so far gone to Rick Santorum, Romney’s nearest challenger. “It will be a surprise if Romney runs strongly in many of the remaining, leading evangelical states,” say the Center’s Kyle Kondik, Larry Sabato and Geoffrey Skelley.