Romney may finally be on the brink of taking an insurmountable lead in the GOP primary, yet Republican voters remain reluctant to accept him.
ZANESVILLE, OHIO -- When Ohio votes on Super Tuesday, Amy and Mike Jacoby's Republican primary votes will essentially cancel each other out.
She is voting for Rick Santorum, because she thinks America needs to return to God-based values. He is voting for Mitt Romney, because that's who he thinks can win the general election.
"One of the fundamentals of this country is God, and yet the current administration is always trying to push that out of the discussion," said Amy Jacoby, 42, a blonde housewife with bright reddish-pink lipstick. "That's why Rick Santorum is still in it. People in the heartland are thirsty for that."
Tuesday is very likely to be the day Romney finally blows open the Republican primary, racking up so many delegates that the rest -- the 28 states and four territories that have yet to vote -- becomes a foregone conclusion. But he will have done so without bowling over the stolid, skeptical Midwestern voters of the Buckeye State, that crown jewel of swing-state America.
The perennial doubts about Romney -- chiefly that he is not conservative enough and can't relate to regular people -- have just never been put to rest for a sizable portion of voters. Nor have they been persuaded to overlook those qualities and stop yearning for a better option. Many are more or less resigned to having Romney as the GOP nominee and plan to vote for him in November -- but they're still not voting for him in the primary.