Now it’s Rick Santorum with the brass ring in his hand as the Republican nomination merry-go-round whirls and jerks around and around.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Santorum won in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado Tuesday, which gives him four states, when his late victory in the Iowa caucuses is included. What does that mean?
It means the religious conservatives and the Tea Party faithful who go to caucuses have trouble with Romney and want nothing to do with Newt Gingrich.
Tuesday’s turnout for the caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota was light. The Missouri vote was much heavier, but advisory, so no delegates will be awarded.
The damage to Romney, however, was palpable. Because the losses took the shine off of his winning image, he will feel forced to campaign harder, spend more money before the convention and may careen even farther to the right in the contests to come.
Santorum now has legitimate reason to claim he is the ultra-conservative alternative to Romney for the nomination. If he bests Gingrich in the Super Tuesday contests on March 6, Gingrich probably will give it up.
At some point, however, Republicans must settle on a candidate who can appeal to the political center, which will decide the election in November. Santorum doesn’t fit that description. His political career has the core principals of the religious right as its foundation. He has had no political, business or professional experience which qualifies him to excel as president of the United States. Opposition to abortion and same sex marriage won’t cut it.
Romney’s reaction to Santorum’s rise should be to congratulate him, then ignore him and continue to run against the president. If, instead, he goes after the far right vote he will tar himself with the same brush that led to Santorum’s defeat by 17 percentage points in his last senatorial campaign in Pennsylvania.
Santorum explained that defeat by saying the voters were not ready to support a man who refused to compromise on his firmly held convictions. The voters, however, defeated him because they disagreed with those convictions.
Of the four remaining in the GOP nomination race, Romney would be the most credible opponent to President Obama. But if he allows Santorum’s challenge to seduce him into a prolonged effort to capture the Tea Party and evangelical vote he could identify himself with that wing of the party so indelibly that he will not be able to move back to center in the general election.
The question he must ask himself every morning is, “where will those voters go in November if they don’t come to me?” With the obvious answer ringing in his ears he should hark back to his days as governor of Massachusetts and return to the problem-solving policies that brought him success there and propelled him into presidential politics.
Romney is, as Newt says, a Massachusetts moderate. He should campaign, proudly, as one.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
