By Carey Fox, Segment Producer
Once a week I have breakfast with the same friend and when we eventually get around to politics he asks ‘Who is going to win the GOP nomination?’ My answer has usually been ‘Mitt Romney’. I have occasionally said, ‘Maybe Newt’
Florida will go to Romney tonight as expected (this is based on polling readily available to anyone on Google; I have no inside scoop).
And when Florida goes to Romney, it will be the first state he wins not on home turf (since New Hampshire obviously was and hardly counts).
But the bitterness it will engender in Gingrich should assure he is a problem for Romney for at least a couple months to come.
Gingrich will make some kind of third comeback and we’ll once again wonder if he could possibly garner ‘Conservatives Against Mitt’ (CAM) and take the nomination after all.
He won’t.
But Romney has sealed in Gingrich’s taste for vengeance. Even if Gingrich is somehow, ultimately persuaded to get out of this race, he will not do it anytime soon and he will get nastier, much nastier, before he gets mellow.
It will further drive up Romney’s negative ratings, as will Romney’s own negativity against Gingrich.
Romney will lose Florida in November against President Obama, because he will lose the Hispanic vote by a margin wider than that of McCain versus Obama.
Be sure to watch our own Ed Schultz tonight in our special coverage from now until midnight ET on msnbc!