Rick Santorum picked up media momentum in yesterday's Southern primaries, but did not narow Romney's lead in the delegate count.  Mitt Romney came in third, a big disappointment considering poll numbers reported before the election indicating a close race.  Santorum's margin in Alabama was about 5 percent over Gingrich, and 7 percent over Romney, a clear win. In Mississippi, he enjoyed 2 points over Gingrich, and 3 over Romney. But because of proportional distribution of delegates, Santorum's first place status in the Southern state does not yield significant gains on front-runner Romney, while Romney's bigger victory in Hawaii's caucuses actually will enlarge his delegate lead.  Andrew Malcolm of IBD notes: Due to the new proportional allocation, Santorum, Gingrich and Romney will each get about a third of the Alabama and Mississippi convention delegates. And Romney's lead of about 250 delegates remains intact. Except -- oh, wait! -- after everyone went...(Read Full Post)