Let's be honest: Rick Santorum supporters -- and Democrats -- weren't the only ones rooting for a Santorum win in Tuesday's primaries.
Two hours before the polls closed, MSNBC's Chris Matthews sounded like a reporter's reporter at the top of "Hardball." No, not because he played it down the middle: A reporter's reporter roots not for the candidate he or she likes best, but for the candidate who's win would be the best story.
"Tonight we stand watch, again, at the political abyss of Mitt Romney," Matthews said with just a touch of melodrama. "He may win tonight and avoid a devastating fall. But if he loses the fall could be deadly. How does Romney explaining losing Michigan? How does a candidate who outspends a rival two-to-one explain rejection? And how does anyone explain losing to a candidate who makes himself so challenging to root for as Rick Santorum? This may be as big a night as we've had this political season."
It wasn't. And Matthews and other reporter's reporters didn't get their abyss story Tuesday.
MSNBC, CNN, Fox News and Current TV projected a win for Romney in Arizona just moments after polls had closed there. Within an hour and twenty minutes, they had called Michigan for Romney as well. The state was especially important to Romney because he was born there and his father was the state's governor. Losing would have been awfully embarassing.
Though they smelled blood in the water prior to Romney's wins, Tuesday's reporter's reporters knew enough to hedge. Time's Joe Klein said on CNN, before polls closed, that Romney would still face a tough Super Tuesday in Ohio and the South even if he won Michigan.
Super Tuesday is a week away. But several factors conspired to make some reporters believe they might not have to wait that long for a Romney fall. Among them:
-Michigan has an open primary, and Santorum's backers paid for robocalls to Michigan Democrats, asking them to vote for him. Santorum said he was seeking Reagan Democrats.
-Mischief was in the air. Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, a Michigan native, said his Democratic friends at home were voting for voting for Santorum in what he called "Operation Hilarity." He later tweeted that a friend of his went to vote for Santorum but couldn't stop lauging.
-The usual series of Romney gaffes as he tries to relate to the common man, this time when he remarked that his wife drives a "couple of Cadillacs." His critics also delighted in pointing out that he had opposed the auto industry bailout that many autoworkers credit with saving their jobs. Santorum opposed it as well, but he noted that at least he opposed all bailouts; Romney, he said, had opposed the auto bailout specifically.
Some Michigan Democrats voted for Santorum in the hopes of extending the Republican nomination fight and weakening the eventual winner. Others saw the socially conservative Santorum as the more beatable general election candidate.
