Santorum Surge, Part 144

Let’s ignore that three of his four wins (including two last night) have come in non-binding caucuses and take a quick look at The Size of the Santorum Surge.

Over at Skippy, Our Leader posted a link to a discussion of whether “Romney’s strengths” could beat Obama. I wisecracked, without looking at the data, that the total Republican votes in all three states were lower than the daily NYC subway ridership.

My bad. That’s not even a ballpark comparison. On its lowest day, the NYC subway averages more than 2,350,000 riders. (That’s a lot of elitists, Newt.) It averages more than three million (3,000,000) on Saturdays, more than four million (4,000,000) riders a day, and more than five million (5,000,000) every weekday.

By comparison, here are the number of votes cast yesterday in Republican primaries/caucuses:

Clearly, we need a smaller comparative to make the turnout appear more impressive. So let’s look at one of my favorite demographic measures, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs).

Keeping in mind that the MSA includes the areas around the cities named, the total voters in the three Republican elections yesterday would occupy…the 144th largest MSA,* just behind Eugene-Springfield, Oregon (351,715).

The Santorum Surge: Smaller than Peoria (#135), bigger than Kalamazoo (#148).

*I resist saying “Gross!” at this point.