First, a brief word on Newt, who I endorsed. Get over it. Adelson may be happy to use him as a stalking horse for his second choice, Romney, but I'm not. I understood the warnings going in and accepted them, but in South Carolina, Romney got under Newt's skin and he self-destructed.
We all saw how erratic and ego driven he became. He looked frumpy and angry in the debate and gave a flat, wonky speech at CPAC that I gave a solid A on policy, but an F, politically. I don't care if he gets another $10 mil and has a good week, or two. Once bitten, twice shy and he'll never pull enough people back to be competitive. There's no point in backing a guy who very well may self-destruct again a week, or a month later, let alone never survive a general election. There's now no reason to believe he could ever do that, especially against Team Obama.
That said, I'll defend him against unfair criticism, as well as defend Santorum against same, just as I have been doing all along. But Newt's ship has sailed and his supporters may as well switch to Romney, as that's what backing Newt at this point means. And Adelson, along with most everyone else, knows it.
As for Romney being electable, it's time to put that myth behind us. If one had doubts as to his political viability after 2008, when he couldn't beat a once broke John McCain, or a Mike Huckabee, what we've witnessed this year should tell every one that Mitt is a losing proposition. You can not drop hundreds of millions of dollars into a SuperPAC and beat an incumbent president by destroying him with ads. Because of his image, along with his weak political and communication skills, that's the only trick Mitt has in his bag and it's simply not going to cut it for the general election.
Whether Romney is able to drag Santorum down enough to win his own state is debatable; that alone is enough to tell us what a failed proposition would be a Romney nomination.
GOP HEAVIES MAY SEEK NEW HORSE IF MITT BUCKED ON FEB. 28: 'If Romney cannot win Michigan, we need a new candidate' -- Doing the Hail Mary math
Most reporters still think Romney “will find a way to win Michigan.” Nevertheless, some of the nation’s most powerful Republicans are poring over filing deadlines and pondering worst-case scenarios.
Consider this, Santorum has been running a campaign on a shoe string. His campaign headquarters may as well be the back seat of his car. If an Adelson-type had given him Newt money, we wouldn't even be having this conversation - Romney would have withdrawn at CPAC for the second presidential contest in a row.
The ultimate in silliness is the same people who are still insisting Romney is electable, are also saying Santorum is not. Well, if Santorum isn't - and I don't buy that - then Romney shouldn't even be on the ballot, or mentioned in the pages of serious pundits. Given Santorum's besting Romney in so many state and national polls, one would have to be an idiot, or a Romney sychophant, to be pushing those two conclusions at the same time. They are unsupportable by anything close to objective, logical reasoning. More from link above.
Our friend handed us a printout of FEC deadlines for ballot access, with five of them circled and starred: California (March 23), Montana (March 12), New Jersey (April 2), New Mexico (March 16) and South Dakota (March 27). The point: Even after Feb. 28, it might be possible to assemble a Hail Mary candidacy that could garner enough delegates to force a CONTESTED convention (a different nuance than BROKERED, which implies that someone is in charge).
While the constituent groups and demographics to make Santorum a winner in the general election may look somewhat different than anticipated going in, I do believe Santorum has as good, if not a better chance than Romney to win the general election. He's already besting Romney with next to nothing in resources - a far cry from Mitt's situation.
Whether Mitt wins the nomination, or the nominee is ultimately selected at the GOP convention, I've no idea. But even if Romney somehow manages to dig himself out of his current hole and prevail, the experience of Romney 2008 and Romney 2012 suggests only a fool would believe the GOP will be going into the general election with anything other than a loser as a politician. The accompanying fall off in GOP turn out could also cost us desperately needed House and Senate seats.
Adelson may be willing to take that bet by using Newt as a stalking horse to keep Santorum down and give us Romney, conservatives should not.