Romney in the lead

Ohio midwestern industrial state, has always been considered a bellwether in US primary elections for presidential nominees. On Tuesday in the Republican Party primary Mitt Romney won Ohio, but only by a narrow margin over Rick Santorum who continues to be the principal threat to Romney's much better financed and organised campaign. In what is known as super-Tuesday when several states vote Romney took six and Santorum three. Further primaries take place on Saturday in Kansas and Wyoming and next Tuesday in Alabama and Mississippi. It is sometimes forgotten that when the Republican Party takes its final decision on the person to face Barak Obama the number of delegates won by the candidates will be the deciding factor rather than the number of states won. The larger states have the greatest number of delegates and currently Mitt Romney has a big lead of 415 over Santorum's 176; the total from all states is 1'114. This early numerical advantage has been achieved with some less than impressive victories in closely-fought campaigns which Romney has won principally because of huge expenditure on advertising. In the end this advantage may give him the Republication nomination for the presidency but the way in which he has achieved it against a candidate who was hardly known when the primaries began casts a doubt over Romney's ability to defeat Obama.