The republican voters in Maryland, Wisconsin and Washington D.C. have spoken and they confirmed what everyone already knew, or should have known. Mitt Romney will win the GOP nomination for president of the United States.
Rick Santorum has not won in a state where less than 50% of the voters identify themselves to be evangelical Christians. Even in his home state of Pennsylvania his lead over Romney is a bare six points. The numbers game has finally caught up to him.
So, what does he do now? Even a win in Pennsylvania simply delays the inevitable. Does our boy Rick stay in, or does he gracefully concede and let the Mitt concentrate on Barak Obama and a VP selection?
If he stays in he cannot continue to burn bridges between himself and the eventual nominee. He has to play positive toward Romney and become the good GOP soldier and concentrate on Obama. Continuing the vitriolic civil war will doom him within the party if he has any aspirations on a national level in the future. No, it is time for Mr. Santorum to start thinking about 2016. He has national recognition now and among the arch conservative wing of the party he has credibility.
If he can hold his tongue and Romney loses to Obama he will become a big time player four years from now. If Romney wins in November and Santorum has seemed graceful in this defeat he can count on some sort of cabinet spot and in eight years be primed for another run.
He can't demand the vice president spot because first, he isn't in a position to do so and second, Romney doesn't need him to carry those southern states. Mitt needs swing states, the very places Santorum has failed so miserably in. The south will take care of itself for the republicans. They have to have places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Indiana.
Gingrich and Paul are done on the national level for all time. Santorum is the only loser left in this field who has a future, but he has to handle himself just right, or he'll find himself just as forgotten as those two bitter old fools in four years.
So, as Holmes would say, the game is afoot.
Romney will scream big government, Obama will counter by pointing to the republican fealty to the corporate robber barons and the very rich. Everyone will shout class warfare. Everyone will spend more money than a drunken lottery winner. I'll man up and put the Obama bumper sticker on the car, which will cause untold numbers of strangers to flip me off. At some grocery store parking lot someone will tear it off and if history repeats itself they'll spit all over my front seat and steering wheel. If the vote count is a close shave in any state the losing side will charge fraud and given the absolute polarization and extreme animosity between the two parties they might end up being right. By the time it is all over half of us will be patriots and the other half traitors.
Who says America isn't great?
4-4-12
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