The Republican nomination: The big bellwether swings for Romney AT A polling station nestled among the mansions and marinas of the Miami suburb of Coral Gables, a tanned couple in designer sunglasses paused on their way back to their Porsche to explain how they voted in Florida's Republican presidential primary. The man said he chose Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, because his knowledge of business and finance should equip him to tackle America's economic ills. Plus, added his companion, Mr Romney has a better chance than the other candidates of beating Barack Obama come November. It was not just the sleekly wealthy, however, who plumped for Mr Romney. A few miles away, beneath towering motorway viaducts on the fringes of Little Havana, a grizzled Cuban-American in a Panama hat also declared that Mr Romney was the most electable candidate. Farther into Miami's sprawl, in one of the desolate new subdivisions created by the housing bubble and then half-emptied by its bursting, an elderly woman argued that Mr Romney had both the character and the ideas she wanted in a president. Some voters complained that Mr Romney was not a true conservative, or that he was too slippery in his opinions - but even a few of those said they voted for him all the same, as the best hope of beating Mr Obama. That helps to explain Mr Romney's lopsided victory in Florida: he took 46% of the vote, more than his two closest rivals, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, put together. The result sets the race for the nomination back to its default state for most of the past year, with Mr Romney as the presumed nominee. Mr Gingrich, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, had briefly called that presumption into question by winning the primary in South Carolina on January 21st and then taking a lead in the polls in Florida. But Mr Romney, with characteristic thoroughness, fought back. As in other states, his supporters flooded the airwaves with negative ads - Mr Gingrich denounced the merciless tide as a "five-to-one onslaught." Perhaps more importantly, Mr Romney clearly bested Mr Gingrich in two televised debates, hitherto the medium on which Mr Gingrich had staked his candidacy. He even sent allies to disrupt Mr Gingrich's campaign events. One of them, Connie Mack, a congressman and senatorial candidate, wound up in an undignified altercation with Mr Gingrich's spokesman. Mr Gingrich appeared flustered by this assault, and spent much of the run-up to the primary bemoaning it. When he did get around to selling himself, his ideas often sounded quixotic. His talk of building a base on the moon in a state where unemployment stands at 9.9% earned derision from Mr Romney. An automated call to potential voters claiming that as governor Mr Romney had denied kosher meals to Holocaust survivors smacked of desperation. But Mr Gingrich's populist tone continues to strike a chord with those Republicans hardest hit by the recession. The more troubled voters were by the housing crash, the more likely they were to vote for him. One enthusiastic Gingrich volunteer, outside a polling station in a neighbourhood where one in every 64 houses received a foreclosure notice in December, recounted how he had lost his job and his house to the recession, and railed against Washington's tendency to "bail out the fat cats." But such sentiment was not nearly widespread enough to bring Mr Gingrich victory: in the end he mustered just 32% of the vote. The result suggests that Mr Romney's appeal is broader than his poor showing in South Carolina had implied. According to exit polls, he won about as many votes from those who consider themselves tea-partiers and evangelicals as Mr Gingrich did. Among more moderate Republicans, he completely dominated. He prevailed in every area of the state except the conservative Panhandle. In southern Florida he assiduously courted the Cuban population, which is strongly Republican but had spurned him during his previous run for president, in 2008. At a rally in Hialeah, a Cuban stronghold, one of his sons told the crowd in their native tongue, "My father does not speak Spanish, but he speaks the language of the economy." Mr Romney then gamely denounced the Castro regime and carved up a roast suckling pig. The Cuban community rewarded him with almost double the number of votes they gave Mr Gingrich. The latter also performed especially poorly among women, who preferred Mr Romney by 52% to 28% (possibly Mr Gingrich's three marriages, compared to Mr Romney's one, had something to do with that). To have won such a big, bellwether state, with demographics similar to the country as a whole, Mr Romney's boosters asserted, proves that he is the candidate best placed to take on Mr Obama. Nonetheless, Mr Gingrich seemed almost energised by his thumping. His aides handed out signs reading "46 states to go" at his election-night party, to underline their contention that his quest for the nomination is only just getting started. He said earlier this week that the race would drag on until June or July, "unless Romney drops out sooner." Both Mr Santorum, who won 13% of the vote in Florida, and Ron Paul, who won 7%, also vowed to fight on, and may even mean it. Mathematically, Mr Gingrich has plenty of time to mount a comeback. Florida, after all, is the only winner-take-all state until April, and a majority of the delegates needed to win the nomination will not have been handed out until early that month. He still leads Mr Romney in some national polls, although that is likely to change in light of this week's events. But the next few contests heavily favour Mr Romney. He won five of the six states that vote in February in his previous presidential run, the exception being Arizona, the home state of the eventual nominee, John McCain. A seventh state, Missouri, also conducts a primary in February, but it is purely for show: the state's delegates will be allocated at caucuses in March. It is only on "Super Tuesday," on March 6th, when a few southern states will be among the ten to vote, that Mr Gingrich's prospects may brighten again. Mr Gingrich will have a hard time keeping his supporters ginned up until then. The longer the campaign drags on, the more bearing Mr Romney's advantages in terms of money and organisation will have. For the past month the primaries have moved at a sedate pace, with a single contest every seven or ten days. That now changes: Nevada, Maine, Colorado and Minnesota all hold caucuses shortly, while Missouri conducts its symbolic primary. There will be a lot of time spent on planes, and little glad-handing voters. Advertising and get-out-the-vote drives will be paramount, and Mr Romney has far more cash at his disposal than the other candidates (see article). Although Mr Romney's win this week has put him back on track for the nomination, it does hold some unnerving portents for the general election. Independent voters, who could not take part in Florida's "closed" primary, seem to have been put off by the nasty tenor of the campaigning. The number of them who take a dim view of Mr Romney has risen in recent days. Moreover, the turnout among Republicans was lower than in 2008, itself a year in which the party was rather dispirited. To have prevailed in a big, swing state like Florida is an enormous boost for Mr Romney, but Mr Obama will find some solace in the results as well.