The long battle for the Republican nomination is over; Rick Santorum announced on Tuesday that he is suspending his campaign because of the hospitalization of his daughter who has been diagnosed with Trisomy 18. This sudden development paves the path for Mitt Romney to become the next Republican nominee.
Ever since Rick Santorum won the Iowa Caucus on January 3rd, the viability of Mitt Romney as the Republican nominee for the 2012 presidential election race has been called into question. Not anymore. Still, the Republican Party lacks a unified front against Obama, a position they need to achieve by this summer.
Newt Gingrich has only won South Carolina and Georgia and has resorted to charging $50 for any picture taken with him, drawing even more attention to himself as a Republican nominee desperate for money. He describes Romney as “far and away the most likely” GOP nominee during an interview on Fox News Sunday, but continues to campaign with a $4.5 million debt.
Despite the fact that Ron Paul has yet to win a single state, remaining in the race slowly but steadily has expanded his small cult of libertarian followers, hoping to retrieve some delegates if Republicans decide to elect their nominee at their Florida convention.
But the real problem isn’t the remaining candidates: it’s Romney’s religion, personality, and political history that may scare some Republicans to the Democrats’ side.
But last Tuesday again proved to the Republican Party that their Mormon frontrunner is their only chance to write President Obama down in the history books as a one term president. Sweeping Maryland, Wisconsin, and Washington D.C., Romney made no mention in his victory speeches of any other Republican nominees but did denounce Obama’s foreign and economic policies. A blatant display of superiority, Romney’s failure to discuss Santorum and other candidates in his speech effectively revealed to viewers that he considers himself the obvious choice for the nomination.
So what kept Santorum in the race for such a long time?
Evangelical Christians and Catholics have kept the mirage of presidency still visible for Santorum, who believed he could win the necessary 1,144 delegates to become the Republican nominee. The constant ad hominem attacks on Newt Gingrich ejected him from the role as a trustworthy socially conservative candidate and Ron Paul only seems to be a Constitutionalist champion devoid of any true intentions of upholding conservative ideals. At this point, it isn’t a matter of the best man, but rather the only candidate left.
Romney, being that only candidate, is a devout Mormon with a history of liberal ideas. Although he established RomneyCare in Massachusetts while governor and has a controversial stance on expanding our military beyond fiscal capability, Romney represents a modernized Republican without the conservative extremist policies of Santorum.
Meanwhile in the White House, President Obama is gathering his money to unleash attack ads on the future Republican nominee later in the year, even as the Republican Party is still squabbling over who their candidate will be. Having an established following of Democrats and a term of experience, Obama is simply watching the splintering Republican Party with a cautious eye.
Obama, however, is not a guaranteed two term president. With the likelihood of ObamaCare being struck down in the Supreme Court on a 5-4 decision, his inability to develop any progress on the issue of Iranian nuclear power, his public statements with Russian President Medvedev about his political inflexibility until his re-election, and his weariness with the United States’ protection of Israel, a second term for Obama is seeming more and more unlikely.
Although Obama has made some mistakes, the Republican Party is splitting into separate camps. Romney currently has 571 delegates, Santorum with 264, Gingrich with 137, and Paul with 71. In order for the Republicans to become a unified front against Obama, the nominees must relinquish their delegates to Romney and fully back him instead of showing mild support in the polls.
If they don’t, Obama’s continued presidency will already have been secured.
