Jeremy Hobson: Any guesses about what the number one issue for voters was on Super Tuesday?
Hold onto those guesses while I give you the vote tally:
Mitt Romney won Vermont, Massachusetts, Alaska, Idaho, Virginia and — just barely — Ohio. Rick Santorum won Tennessee, Oklahoma and North Dakota. And Newt Gingrich won his home state of Georgia.
In state after state, exit polls show the number one issue for voters was: the economy. And it didn’t take long for the candidates
to note the economy in their speeches.
For Mitt Romney, the first mention of the word “economy” came three minutes and 26 seconds in.
Mitt Romney: It’s entrepreneurs like Norm Burn who are going to get America’s economy back on track if we can get the government out of the way.
For Rick Santorum, the first talk of economy was about debt, six minutes and 51 seconds into his speech.
Rick Santorum: They have systematically gone and grown the size and scale of government to beyond where — well, it’s just unrecognizable.
Newt Gingrich mentioned Wall Street about two minutes and 40 seconds into his speech.
And Ron Paul mentioned the national debt one minute and 5 seconds into his televised remarks. But while he was the fastest to address the economy, he didn’t actually win any contests.
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