It wasn't pretty, but the bottom line was that Mitt Romney won a hard fought win in Michigan to along with an easy victory in Arizona's primary, as Romney's family ties to the Wolverine State proved to be too much for Rick Santorum in the Michigan GOP Primary.
"We didn’t win by a lot but we won by enough and that’s all that matters," Romney said to his cheering supporters outside of Detroit.
Romney's winning margin came almost entirely from the county where he grew up - Oakland County - which gave him a 29,000 vote edge - almost all of the over 31,000 raw vote advantage over Santorum.
(Counties won by Mitt Romney are in red, by Rick Santorum in green.)
The 41-38% victory though was less than what Romney enjoyed in 2008 when he defeated John McCain, as critics simply moved the goal posts to Super Tuesday when Romney might only be favored to win three states - Virginia, Vermont and Massachusetts.
There are eleven states in play over the next six days, starting with Washington State on Saturday. Then Super Tuesday has 10 states: Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Virginia, Vermont, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Idaho and Alaska.
Now the big question - where do you send your candidate?
Romney today goes to Ohio, which really will be the big battleground on Super Tuesday; Santorum will be there on Friday and Saturday.
Today Santorum will hold two rallies and a fundraiser in Tennessee, then he flies to Washington for events on Thursday, when Romney will also be in the Evergreen State.
Newt Gingrich meanwhile continues his one man campaign swing through Georgia for another day. No other candidate has announced plans to stump for votes in Georgia, making some wonder whether Gingrich should be spending some time in another Super Tuesday state or states, too.
As for Ron Paul, he has no campaign events scheduled today. One would think he might do well in the three caucus states of North Dakota, Idaho and Alaska, along with Washington State.
What it all means is that Romney might well be on his way to the GOP nomination, but he's going to have an extended slog to get there.
If he doesn't do well on Super Tuesday, then he seems likely to lose in Alabama and Mississippi the following week. Other states like Kansas and Wyoming don't exactly seem like Romney territory.
At the same time, Santorum's loss in Michigan came after some polls had him up double digits in the past few weeks. Santorum didn't point any fingers at Romney on Tuesday night - we'll see if that changes on the stump in the Volunteer State today.
I'll check in from there later on Thursday.
