Texas Gives Romney the Ring, Ron Paul Eyes Newt

Mitt Romney went over the top, securing the last of the 1144 delegates he needs to clinch the Republican nomination with a win in the Texas primary yesterday.

# of delegates secured so far	NYT	WSJ	CNN	CBS	MSNBC	RCP
Mitt Romney	1191	1191	1172	1198	1191	1169
Rick Santorum	265	265	266	231	265	267
Newt Gingrich	138	138	144	125	138	145
Ron Paul	137	137	140	121	137	118
Jon Huntsman	2	2	1	2	0	0
Michele Bachmann	1	1	1	0	0	0
Total	1734	1734	1724	1677	1731	1699
% of delegates secured so far
Mitt Romney	69%	69%	68%	71%	69%	69%
Rick Santorum	15%	15%	15%	14%	15%	16%
Newt Gingrich	8%	8%	8%	7%	8%	9%
Ron Paul	8%	8%	8%	7%	8%	7%
% of remaining needed to clinch:
Mitt Romney	-9%	-9%	-5%	-9%	-8%	-4%
Rick Santorum	159%	159%	156%	150%	158%	149%
Newt Gingrich	182%	182%	178%	167%	181%	170%
Ron Paul	182%	182%	179%	168%	181%	175%

Ron Paul has pulled within 4 to 9 delegates of surpassing Newt Gingrich. With six states left to vote and a number of delegates to be selected at state conventions where Ron Paul is always well organized, he's on track to do that. That would put Ron Paul in third and push Newt Gingrich down to fourth going into the convention.

Well, everything after first place is for bragging rights, but that may go to the lone Huntsman delegate from New Hampshire, if there is even one. Lone Huntsman, that sounds like a superhero. Dr. Paul is the evil villain with the heart of gold. Newt Gingrich is the hapless henchman.

Update 5/31/2012:  The Lone Huntsman rides alone no more. After the Texas votes settled, Jon Huntsman and Michele Bachmann were each awarded 1 Texas delegate. In Eye of Newt news, Ron Paul has now pulled within 1 to 4 delegates on mots scorecards of creeping up to third place.