AP/ March 18, 2012, 7:14 PM

Mitt Romney wins Puerto Rico primary handily

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney attends a New Progressive Party rally on the North Side of the Capitol building March 16, 2012, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. On the right is Luis Fortuno, the island's governor and a Republican, and on Romney's left is Jenniffer Gonzalez, Puerto Rican House of Representatives president.

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney attends a New Progressive Party rally on the North Side of the Capitol building March 16, 2012, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. On the right is Luis Fortuno, the island's governor and a Republican, and on Romney's left is Jenniffer Gonzalez, Puerto Rican House of Representatives president. / Getty Images

(AP) SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Mitt Romney scored an overwhelming win Sunday in Puerto Rico's Republican presidential primary, trouncing chief rival Rick Santorum on the Caribbean island even as the two rivals looked ahead to more competitive contests this week in Illinois and Louisiana.

The victory in the U.S. territory was so convincing that Romney, the GOP front-runner, won all 20 delegates to the national convention at stake because he got more than 50 percent of the vote. That padded his comfortable lead over Santorum in the race to amass 1,144 delegates to clinch the nomination.

Nevertheless, the GOP nomination fight is unlikely to end anytime soon, with Santorum refusing to step aside even though Romney is pulling further ahead in the delegate hunt.

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As the day began, Santorum claimed he was in contest for the long haul because Romney is a weak front-runner.

"This is a primary process where somebody had a huge advantage, huge money advantage, huge advantage of establishment support and he hasn't been able to close the deal and even come close to closing the deal," Santorum said. "That tells you that there's a real flaw there."

Yet, Santorum sidestepped when asked if he would fight Romney on the convention floor if he failed before August to stop the former Massachusetts governor from getting the required number of delegates.

Romney, in turn, expressed confidence that he'd prevail.

"I can't tell you exactly how the process is going to work," Romney said. "But I bet I'm going to become the nominee."

Both are aggressively competing in the next two states to vote. Illinois, a more moderate Midwestern state, is seen as more friendly territory for Romney, while Santorum is the favorite in the more conservative Southern state of Louisiana.

© 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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ProgressNow says:
by Lawyers-Guns-n-Money06 March 19, 2012 9:11 AM EDT
Mitt likes the fact that the banks in the Caribbean are just the right height.
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And don't ask a lot of questions...
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ProgressNow says:
by krisinal March 19, 2012 7:03 AM EDT
Romney won over 80% of the vote.....a lot more than the over 50% reported.
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And he only had to spend $17 million to get it!!!!!!! Whoooo...whoooooooo!!!! The best delegates money can buy!!!!!!
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ProgressNow says:
"I love Puerto Rico, I grew up here. Your beaches are just the right length. Gosh, I was really shocked how Mofongo tastes just like cheesy grits. You sure have a lot of chickens here...I know folk who raise chickens. The Purdue family are members of my country club."
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Molly-Pchr says:
This independent wants to make an observation about the Republicans. Where is Romney?? Where is he? Santorum is out there, on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, Morning Joe, This Week, etc., et al, answering questions of the liberal media (whether you like his answers or not) but where is Romney? Last week he was on the Sean Hannity radio show...and Fox News that night. He is hiding, answering easy questions. In fact, there are no questions asked. Do you vote "no questions asked"? Hey, Romney, come out, come out, wherever you are. You will need our independents' votes if you're to beat Obama, and I haven't seen you take a punch yet.
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greco99-2009 replies:
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Mitt has become too scared to appear in any unscripted interviews - even foxnews...

Looks like he has lots to run away from.

Mitt Romney's biggest enemy - the Mitt Romney of just a few years ago. Watch mitt v mitt: the story of two men trapped in one body. Shocking how many lies and how baldfaced.

Mitt got this far on a fluke plus loads of cash — the fluke was a weak republican field and the cash came from very few sources and will turn out to be money wasted.

Don't tarnish yourself by supporting this liar who will sell you out on a dime.

Even the rom-bot supporters can't sustain support for this loser.
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Molly-Pchr says:
Whoopi-doo.
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amerilatino says:
Yup, Mitt won over 50% of the 2% of people in Puerto Rico who actually give a rat's rump about who the GOP or Democrat wannabes for the POTUS position are, because they do not have a presidential vote, nor do they have voting representation in Congress while they live on the island.
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greco99-2009 says:
Mitt the liar -

For abortion - then against it.

For the bailout - then against it.

Against Reagan - then a supporter.

Against government bailout of the olympics - then see the video of how he used cynical and corrupt insider tactics to get 'every dollar possible'.

Against gun rights - now for them.

Said he was a 'hunter' - then admitted that was a whopper of a lie.

Never served in the military - said his sons had 'better things to do' - now he wants to send other peoples kids to fight useless wars.

Against the china police state - but made millions off camera systems for the china gvt.

Says his corrupt investments are not his fault - but, he picked the trustee.

Said he is against medicare corruption - but was on the board of a company that engaged in massive medicare corruption (and was responsible for financial oversight even though he lies and tries to blame others).

Make no Mistake Mitt is a corrupt two faced liar. You would not even want him as a neighbor.
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2happy2ride replies:
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Sometimes as people gain wisdom they have a different viewpoint. Apparently that affect has never occurred in your life, nor need you be concerned that it will happen in the future.
greco99-2009 replies:
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Mitt not only seems to have at least two opinions on every major political topic - he also seems to change his opinion based on what will help him achieve his goals.

This type of liar is among the worst - no core. Don't tarnish yourself by supporting this loser who will sell you out for a dime...
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greco99-2009 says:
Mitt has no real constructive business skills and has no experience with economic planning at the governmental level.

He was a corrupt corporate raider whose specialty was looting companies by taking over their boards, and then draining everything including pension funds.

Under Obama the stock markets have nearly *doubled*, among the best gains in history. How will Mitt run against this - probably more Romney lies and a billion dollar hate campaign...
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greco99-2009 replies:
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He is a failed one term governor who would not have been reelected.

Pretty much guaranteed he will lose Mass to Obama.

and, btw, state and federal level planning are 100 percent different. Mitt Romney has 0 economic experience at the Federal level (and zero foreign policy experience) and he tries to cover his lack of real experience with phony talking points and lies...
2happy2ride replies:
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Under obama...? Are you kidding me. obama increased our debt higher than ALL the presidents COMBINED and he has NEVER had a real job. His performance confirms, he is economically clueless or just hates America.
Against logic, there's no armor like ignorance.
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greco99-2009 says:
For most of its existence, Mormonism was one of the most racist religions imaginable - central to church doctrine was the principle that non-whites are fundamentally inferior and ineligible for participation in pretty much all aspects of the church.

Even though that changed to some extent around 1980 - Mitt Romney consistently supported and never questioned that doctrine.

Oh yeah, and Mitt once said that his dad 'marched with Martin Luther King', which was later widely debunked as yet another baldfaced Mitt Romney lie.

Romney's religion also tells him that women should be entirely servile to men, and are entirely excluded from all leadership aspects of church and even in the mormon workplace.

They are one small step up from the taliban with regards to how they see the role of women in society.
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greco99-2009 replies:
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Read the line from above -

Oh yeah, and Mitt once said that his dad 'marched with Martin Luther King', which was later widely debunked as yet another baldfaced Mitt Romney lie.

Make no mistake Mitt supported the worst sort of pervasive racism for at lest his first 30 years.
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azure13 says:
Yay! Mitt!
You dorkish, I just want to be in the history book as president mofo! You stink!
You're what is wrong with this country. In the private sector, your hawkish venture capitalist firm bought companies, fired the employees and gave their jobs to outsourced workers.
Just shut up. Please. You piece of garbage.
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greco99-2009 replies:
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Mitt was not really a 'venture capitalist' in the sense of investing and promoting start-up ventures like you hear about in silicon valley.

Mitt was more of a corporate raider and opportunist -- often skirting the edges of corruption or directly involved in corruption.

For example, when Mitt was on the board of a company that was involved in medicare fraud (and now claims ignorance even though it was his watch and his job was oversight)
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