Victories in Oklahoma and Tennessee and a close second in Ohio in the Super Tuesday GOP presidential contests will keep Rick Santorum’s candidacy alive, but a sweep by Mitt Romney will kill the upstart’s bid, according to national pollster John Zogby.
A series of losses, Zogby said, and “he’s done, completely done without a victory.” But he said because Santorum has some delegates, he won’t feel compeled to drop out. And if he gets the wins against Romney the former Pennsylvania senator has been predicting, then “he goes on.”
Zogby said his polling strongly indicates that the eventual winner of the drawn-out GOP race is still expected to be Romney. “It’s pretty much Romney running against himself,” the pollster said in a telephone interview. “I still think that it’s Romney at the end.”
Asked if any of the four remaining presidential candidates will be force to drop out after Tuesday’s elections in 10 states, including Virginia, Zogby shrugged. “It won’t come because of a loss or a series of losses. It has to be something closer to outright humiliation, like an out of wedlock child or undiscovered wife, a genuine hypocrisy in lifestyle. They all have delegates, all represent a wing of the party, and all have podium for now. No incentive yet to drop out.”
