USF St. Pete Prof: Nomination is Romney’s to Lose

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney not only won the last night at the , he’s also likely to win Florida in the Jan. 31 election and the Republican nomination overall.

That’s according to Dr. Seth C. McKee, associate professor of government and international affairs at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

“I’d say got out of the hole we thought he was in,” McKee said of Romney’s performance in last night’s debate. He did well coming out of a loss to in South Carolina over the weekend.

Overall though, the candidates missed an opportunity to talk about local problems specifically, McKee said.

“They didn’t seem too well-studied on the issues of Florida,” he said.

, for example, talked about the fact that he favors offshore drilling—a controversial issue in Florida that many voters are against, McKee said.

Later, Romney slighted President Barack Obama for his failure to support the Keystone Pipeline, which would transport oil from Canada to multiple destinations in the United States, including the Gulf Coast of Texas.

“There was sort of a ‘drill, baby, drill’ tone,” McKee said.

And there were other issues that candidates didn’t even touch on.

“Education: where was that tonight?” asked McKee, who acknowledged that perhaps moderator Brian Williams of NBC focused questions more on concerns relevant to the nation rather than Florida in particular.

Although McKee said he couldn’t predict the outcome of the Jan. 31 election soley on last night’s debate, he said voters here probably relate best to Romney.

He said Thursday’s debate in Jacksonville will be important to both Romney and Gingrich, the two candidates he sees as frontrunners.

“I still think it’s Romney’s to lose in this state and overall,” he said.