Boston, MA — The morning after a mixed Super Tuesday victory, Romney campaign strategists made a bold new case: He's inevitable.
"The nomination is an impossibility for Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich," said one aide, adding that "they would have to ben the laws of reality" to pull off a win at this stage.
Strategists noted that for Santorum to clinch the nomination, he would need to win 65 percent of the remaining delegates—so far, he's won only 22. For Gingrich, the path to the nomination is even steeper: he'd have to win 70 percent of remaining delegates, while he's only won 14 percent so far.
"It's going to take some kind of act of God to get where they need to get to the nomination," the aide said.
Mitt Romney, on the other hand, needs to win only 48 percent of the remaining delegates—and he's won 52 percent to date.
The Romney campaign has, at times, demurred when asked whether they believe their candidate's nomination is inevitable, paying lip service to the process, and insisting that they're prepared for a long slog.
Following a major delegate pickup on Super Tuesday, the campaign now appears to be changing its tune.
"For [our opponents] to get where they need to be, they'll have to start winning by some enormous margins," said a campaign strategist. "They haven't shown an ability to do that. We will get to 1144 [delegates] whether it's on someone else's timeline or our timeline. We will be the nominee."