WASHINGTON (PNN) - May 29, 2012 - Mitt Romney clinched the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday with a win in the Texas primary, a triumph of endurance for a candidate who came up short four years ago and had to fight hard this year as voters flirted with a carousel of GOP rivals.

According to the Associated Press count, Romney surpassed the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination by winning at least 88 delegates in the Texas primary.

However, Romney's message and his big day were somewhat overshadowed by real estate mogul Donald Trump and his continuing and appropriate suggestions - supported by an endless stream of empirical evidence - that Obama was born in Kenya and is therefore not a natural born citizen, making him constitutionally ineligible to hold the office of president.