Romney Moving Up GOP Odds, Holding Steady In 2012 Presidential Odds

Well, Rick Santorum came, saw, and left Michigan and Arizona with silver medals. Mitt Romney, however, is back on top.

If we learned anything from the Michigan and Arizona primaries, it’s that Romney has a strong grip on the chance to face Obama. Also, the Rick Santorum train lost some steam. Michigan was a nail biter that was extremely close, giving Santorum some kind of hope for his future prospects. But Arizona, the primary ended up in a whooping as expected by almost all of the candidates, who scarcely used any time on advertisement in the state leading up to primaries. But could Michigan have been just like Arizona?

The liberal Daily Kos blog launched “Operation Hilarity” in Michigan to urge the Democrats to vote for Santorum.

This, according to their plan, would give Mitt a humiliating loss in his own native state. The plan actually did allow Santorum to win the Democratic vote by a huge margin, but was not enough to win the overall vote. So, without the efforts from this plan, maybe Romney would have smoked Santorum in Michigan too.

The upcoming Virginia primary is looking just the same still according to the Roanoke college poll that has Romney leading Santorum 31%-27%. As of now, the political betting odds at Bovada have Romney at 2/11 (-550) odds to win his Republican candidacy with Santorum getting sloppy seconds with 5/1 (+500). The odds had a chance to sway Santorum’s way had he pulled off a victory in either state, but because of both losses he might have just lost the momentum that he had campaigned so hard to gain. The odds to be the next President is set at 5/11 (-220) for Obama, 5/2 (+250) for Romney, and 12/1 (+1200) for Santorum. Santorum has claimed to be the better choice to beat Obama because he is more of a contrast. Apparently, people want someone much more similar.

U.S. Political Betting Odds – as found at Bovada Sportsbook on 3/1/2012