Rick Santorum Wins Louisiana Primary

At CNN, "Santorum takes Louisiana" (via Memeorandum).

And at New York Times, "Santorum Gets a Boost in Winning Louisiana":

Rick Santorum easily won the Louisiana Republican primary Saturday night, capturing a deeply conservative state with a hefty portion of the kind of evangelical Christian voters who have helped him claim victories in 10 other states.

The win gave Mr. Santorum a much-needed psychological boost but it will be unlikely to change the dynamics of the race. Only 20 delegates were up for grabs on Saturday, with 26 more to be allocated later. Even if Mr. Santorum were to claim most of them, he would still have only half the delegates that Mitt Romney, his chief rival, already has.

Mr. Romney’s win last week in Illinois, as well as his subsequent endorsement by Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, dimmed Mr. Santorum’s political prospects, although his victory in Louisiana showed how he could still complicate Mr. Romney’s efforts to capture the 1,144 delegates needed for the nomination.

In a fund-raising letter sent out Saturday night, Mr. Santorum said the results in Louisiana had sent “shock waves” through the political world.

“Tonight with our strong victory in Louisiana, our campaign has now won 11 states, tying a record and proving we can win in the West, South and Midwest,” the letter said. “Not since Ronald Reagan in 1976 has a conservative candidate won as many states as we have.”

More from Robert Stacy McCain, who's on the ground in Louisiana, "LOUISIANA PRIMARY RESULTS HQ: Santorum Wins by Wide Margin."

And at Washington Post, "Romney roundly defeated in Louisiana":

At the same time, this is likely one of the last times Romney will face such a difficult electorate.

Louisiana is the last state from the Deep South that will vote, bringing an end to what has been Romney’s most difficult region of the country.

Next month’s contests will take place almost totally in the Northeast — a region where Romney is thus far undefeated.

In addition, a few of those states award their delegates on a winner-take-all basis — something only two states have done so far — allowing Romney to expand his delegate lead more quickly than he has to this point.

I think from here on out we'll likely see Mitt Romney roll up the delegates on the way to the GOP nomination. It's been an extremely impressive run for Santorum, but polls in upcoming states indicate an uphill slog. See, for example, Los Angeles Times, "California Republicans get behind Romney."

More on that poll later...