Friday, April 6, 2012

Will Santorum Exit the Race as a Winning Warrior? Or...


I had honestly never believed that Santorum would drop out of the Presidential race before the end of June.  Now I must admit that I am a bit confused whether he will or not after hearing about the meetings Santorum had today to discuss his campaign's future.

Most pundits and voters agree that Mitt Romney is now the presumptive nominee. This makes me wonder if Santorum's campaign is planning to take the diginified appoach and jump on the bandwagon.  He may decide not to, but many experts warn that if he continues with his 'long shot' campaign, the more likely he is to emerge from this primary with a black eye.

An 'influential Republican' [who didn't give his name] that recently talked to Santorum stated, 
“He [Santorum] is very, very worried about losing Pennsylvania. He is trying to find a way to throw a very long pass that could change the game.”  
Santorum should be worried.  There has been an approximate 23 point shift in Pennsylvania over the last month.  Romney has moved up around 17 points and Santorum has moved down around 6.   Very recent polls show Mitt Romney is only behind Santorum in Pennsylvania by 6%, 4%, 2% and one poll shows Romney leading by 5%.  None of these polls accurately portray the three state sweep Romney had on Tuesday.   

Voters have noticed that Santorum continues his relentless attacks on Romney at his rallies and speeches.  Yet, Mitt Romney focuses the majority of his time exposing Obama and his failed policies.  The problem for Santorum is the voters are not buying his hype.

One of Santorum's current key campaign strategies is to hammer Romney on healthcare.  Santorum continually states in his speeches: Romney is, "‘Uniquely Unqualified’ to Confront Obama" on healthcare.  Apparently voters don't agree with Santorum.  In Wisconsin, 36% of the primary voters trusted Romney to handle the health care policy compared to Santorum's 31%.

Even more interesting is in Santorum's home state of Pennsylvania these recent polls shed light that Romney's popularity has increased with people of all categories, including; evangelicals, Tea Party, very conservative, somewhat conservative, seniors, suburbanites and moderates.  People are starting to rally around the frontrunner.

Santorum says it is "half time", but the facts show that he [Santorum] would have to gain 77% of all of the remaining delegates to win the nomination.  Florida and Arizona have made it very clear that they will not be splitting any delegates from their winner take all contests no matter how hard Santorum tries to spin the facts to his email list.  

What would be the impact to Santorum if he loses Pennsylvania?  

Michelle Bachmann's campaign manager, Ed Rollins said today,
“If he [Santorum] drops out in the next few weeks — before April 24 and sooner is better — he goes out as the conservative warrior and lives to fight another day viewed as a political force.  If he fights on and loses big including [his] home state he is damaged goods and joins the long list of losers to come out of this year’s car wreck.”
Then there was Democratic strategist Peter Fenn who said today, 
"If he's playing toward the 2016 race, he should get out now — if Romney loses to Obama he can come back and make the strong argument that he's the one to take the mantle in 2016. He has more of a claim on that argument if he doesn't go down in flames in his home state." 
If Santorum chooses to drag this contest out to the convention at the end of August he poses the threat of further increasing the damage to the GOP with women and swing voters.  He will also continue to deplete the funds that both Romney and the GOP must have to defeat Obama.

So, the real question is, how long can Santorum stay in the race before he can exit with dignity?  Will he choose to stop trying to defeat Romney and start to try to help us defeat Obama?  Will he choose to get out sooner then later and back the front runner like Romney did with McCain?  Or, will he stay in until the end of August out of ego, making himself the pariah of the GOP?

The Republican Party needs this precious extra time to raise funds.  The GOP must start running the much needed ads to beat Obama's campaign machine which has already started their attacks on the GOP and Romney.

My hope is that Santorum will decide to exit this race as the "Winning Warrior."

[Emphasis Added]

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14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great insight and article....Diana thx for this....
Paulee

Justendit said...

I he's as smart as he thinks he is, then yes he will exit gracefully. Also, I think that contrary to what Santorum says, Romney is actually uniquely QUALIFIED to deal with health care as he knows the in's and out's better than just about anyone. I also find it disingenuous since in 2008 he endorsed Romney and said no one is putting words in his mouth, Mitt is the true conservative to move the party forward. Now Rick's just saying whatever it takes for HIS own benefit.

zoomzoomz said...

DR great comments. Glad to see that so many are confident in Romney's ability to handle the healthcare issues in America. Rick Santorum needs to take a look at the greater good, and put his own agenda aside. The voters have said who they want, and at this point, his efforts become more and more destructive.

BOSMAN said...

Fantastic post Diana. A+

Santorum is reported to be taking 5 days off. I hope he does some serious thinking about his future.

If he doesn't get out now, his future won't be in politics.

Anonymous said...

Rick said he TOOK ONE FOR THE TEAM as a senator.

Time to TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM, Rick. Be a team player, like you were in DC. Oh, I guess that was only to advance your own selfish interests. So sad.

In other news, Huntsman daughter said her dad can't be bothered to help Mitt in the general. It's president or nothin. No 'country first' for Jon.

Great job, Diana.

-Martha

My Life said...

@Bosman, unfortunately after I wrote this I found out that Rick most likely will go for the "Black Eye."

I'm sure you heard the news today that the "meeting" turned out that he and his campaign had an "emergency meeting" with the TXGOP trying to get them to make TX WTA.

The TXGOP, RNC and DOJ would have to approve this. Fortunately, it stopped at the RNC who said, “There is no basis for a waiver. Texas will remain a proportional state.”

Looks like Santorum will end up being the pariah of the GOP after all.

Machtyn said...

He is a habitual liar. He won't be my first choice in 2020 when Romney finishes his 2nd term. He was my 2nd choice, but he stayed in the race too long and played his hand. The more we dig into his past, the more we see that the whine, the lies, and the petty shouting match he tries to call a debate are his only cards.

I'm not going to rehash all of the reasons Santorum is not what he says he is. Suffice it to say, he won't be the first choice in the next go around. The big names who didn't run this time will be up next time. Even some we don't know about, some waiting to make names for themselves, may have a chance.

Santorum needs to go back to running his DC insider business alongside Newt.

Anonymous said...

Machtyn, I agree.

It's really funny to me that anyone thinks Rick is set up for 2016 or 2020. There's no way.

Remember what Romney did after Super Tuesday in 08. He dropped out immediately, even though at that point he still had a much better shot that Rick ever had, to overtake the leader.

Romney put a smile on his face, and went out and worked his tail off for McCain. Then he set about getting conservatives elected in 2010.

Mitt earned his frontrunner status. Rick has done the exact opposite. He's only for himself. It actually disgusts me.

-Martha

Doug NYC GOP said...

Rick SAntorum = Whine & Cheeze

Anonymous said...

Diana,

You have more faith than me.

I think Rick needs to be put on suicide watch.

Terrye said...

Jennifer Rubin said that Santorum needs to decide if he wants to be a conservative warrior, or a skunk at the garden party. I tend to agree with that. At this point the only man he is helping is Obama.

Ohio JOE said...

"Romney is actually uniquely QUALIFIED to deal with health care as he knows the in's and out's better than just about anyone." Wrong! he never learned from his mandate mistake.

In any event, it is bothsad and hillarious that the Romneyites want everybody to exit the race before it is officially over. Calm down and take a chill pill. There is no need for anybody to QUIT and EXIT the race.

Anonymous said...

Yes there is Ohio Joe. Obama is defining his opponents and has already started the general election using some harsh language and calling Romney by name. And what's Romney supposed to do? Just sit back and tinker back and forth with a nobody who can't win? That's stupid. There's no logic to your argument. Just as there is no logic to your individual mandate statement. The attorney who fought against the mandate in the Supreme Court case used Mitt's arguments and made a compelling statement. That proves Mitt is very qualified to discuss Health Care and individual mandates. You need to get over it and wake up. The race is over. Rick needs to do the same.

Substance said...

There was NO mandate mistake, perhaps you should look for actual facts before you make false statements. You're mistake makes you look ignorant and not QUALIFIED to even comment. Did you know that Romney won his own state with 72% of the vote. Who better to decide if the LEGAL state mandate was good or bad for MA than the people who are affected by it? Polling has shown 4 out of 5 people like MA's health care and 7 of 10 said they would not want to go back to the system before. By the way Romneys health care law passed with a vote of 198 to 2, yes it must have been a big mistake.(sarcasm) This comment and the comments above are a better education than you probably paid for. You're welcome.