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Posted: 11:49 p.m. Monday, March 5, 2012
By Jamie Dupree
From Zanesville, Ohio -
The last day of campaigning in Ohio seemed almost anti-climactic, as the polls showed a furious neck-and-neck race between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, with both campaigns hoping to use a win in the Buckeye State to highlight a successful Super Tuesday.
"Look, if you do your job tomorrow, we're going to win this thing," Romney said to cheers at a small hall in Zanesville, where the former Massachusetts Governor wrapped up his Ohio campaign with his familiar stump speech.
"It's gut check time; who wants it the most," argued Rick Santorum up in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where an overflow crowd cheered as he cast himself as the underdog in the race.
If there was news made on Monday, it mainly came from the Santorum camp, as the candidate and his handlers hammered on Romney over past statements about the individual mandate in the Obama health law, as Santorum all but called Romney a liar on the issue for saying he opposed that part of the controversial health law.
Romney meanwhile stuck with his very familiar game plan, one which resembles Big Ten football - three yards and a cloud of dust - and if you don't get the first down, then punt it deep in your opponent's territory.
For Romney, that means talking over and over about your business experience and how your opponents don't have the same background. The argument is that rookies don't make good stewards of economic growth.
While Santorum's final rally seemed to have some real zip in it, Romney's event in Zanesville was like most Romney events I have covered in the past three months - it got the job done, but it didn't seem to leave the feeling that anyone in the room would run down the street and burn a building to the ground if the candidate asked the crowd to do exactly that.
There were just no clear signs to me as to what's next in Ohio, though I have to say my gut feeling - and that of a lot of fellow scribes - is that this Tuesday reminds me a lot of last Tuesday in Michigan, where Romney came from behind to win a narrow victory.
But there is a major difference - Ohio does not have the family ties for Romney that he had in Michigan.
Mitt Romney addresses a crowd in Zanesville, Ohio, in his last rally before Super Tuesday.
Obviously, Super Tuesday is not just about Ohio, though the Buckeye State will get a lot of attention.
Let's take a thumbnail of what's ahead tonight, with delegate numbers listed for each state:
Over 400 delegates are at stake - let the voting begin!
I'll have more on delegates later today.
Jamie Dupree is the Radio News Director of the Washington Bureau of the Cox Media Group and writes the Washington Insider blog.
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