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Tonight is the first multi-state night in the clown race we call the GOP nomination contest, with caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota, and a non-binding beauty contest in Missouri.
Results: CNN (CO, MO, MN) | Google (CO, MO, MN)
7:54 PM PT (Jed Lewison): Rick Santorum: "Mitt Romney has the same positions as Barack Obama ... I don't stand here to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama."
7:55 PM PT:
Oh, GOP. If Rick Santorum knew how much I was enjoying tonight, he'd be trying to make it illegal.
— @HunterDK via TweetDeck
7:57 PM PT (Jed Lewison): Rick Santorum says that Mitt Romney has only done well so far because he's gone scorched earth negative—and that he's had the money to do it. And now he's going after Romney's comments about not caring about the poor.
7:58 PM PT (David Nir): This is truly an epic ganja break they're taking in Colorado.
8:00 PM PT (Jed Lewison): Rick Santorum is making the case for Sharia Law. Er, I mean, he's making the case for basing public policy on God's will. Thankfully he's wiling to interpret God's will for us.
8:00 PM PT:
RT @socratic: Rick is essentially saying that government shouldn't give you a right to health care because it can take that right away.
— @markos via TweetDeck
8:02 PM PT (David Nir): Newt's so crazy that sometimes he winds up saying moderate-ish shit by accident. I'm not sure Santorum is ever capable of sounding moderate.
8:03 PM PT: Arithmetic-challenged Colorado Republicans are doing their best to make their Nevada colleagues look good.
8:04 PM PT (Jed Lewison): I've been on vacation, but it's truly amazing to me what a hard-on these guys have for opposing the birth control coverage requirement. Santorum's speech reached it's emotional height when he talked about the birth control issue as if it were a question of freedom of religion. He honestly thinks it's a winning issue for him. He doesn't talk with many women, I assume.
8:07 PM PT (David Nir): Why did Romney skip Minnesota? Says the WSJ:
With a vast war chest and an organization already in place, the Romney campaign could have made a more forceful push in the state, an adviser to the campaign said. But that would’ve pulled time and resources away from states like Colorado and Arizona – states that hold more weight in the general election.
Emphasis added, of course. If the calculus was that sacrificing Minnesota was necessary to compete in Colorado that: a) suggests Romney is pretty weak if he can't walk and chew gum at the same time and b) means he better actually win Colorado, right?
8:08 PM PT (Jed Lewison): There's still a TelePrompter up at Mitt Romney's Colorado rally site.
8:09 PM PT (David Nir): One further point to my update just above: If CO & AZ are "states that hold more weight in the general election" than MN, then does that mean Romney is conceding MN in the general—and also admitting that AZ will be in play? Big shift in the playing field, if so.
8:15 PM PT (Kaili Joy Gray): The liveblogging continues in the next thread.