Romney Attacks, Santorum Defends, Nothing Much Changes     Permalink

Rick Santorum demonstrated last in the Republican debate in Mesa, AZ, why only three senators have ever been elected President: senators vote thousands of times each year and an opponent can always find a couple of votes that make the senator look bad in the context of the current campaign. Romney landed one punch on Santorum when he said: "While I was fighting to save the Olympics, you were fighting to save the Bridge to Nowhere." Yes, Santorum did support the bridge to Gravina Island, a pet project of the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), but so did most Republicans as well as former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) and President George W. Bush. Unfortunately in modern campaigns, even a candidate as consistent as Santorum will occasionally take a position that years later come back to haunt him when an opponent makes it the centerpiece of his campaign. In baseball it is three strikes and you are out. In politics, it's one strike and you are off to the shower.

Santorum was largely on the defensive. When Romney attacked him for supporting "No Child Left Behind" he mumbled something about being a team player. He could have said something like: "That was a key initiative of a Republican President and, unlike you, I have supported Republican policies my whole life." But he didn't.

Romney also went after Santorum for backing Arlen Specter when Specter was running for reelection. Specter later became a turncoat but Santorum didn't know that was going to happen at the time. Again, Santorum could have emphasized his loyalty to the Republican Party and called Romney a RINO, but again he didn't.

All in all, Romney played offense most of the evening and that may have been enough to keep Santorum from gaining ground in the Michigan and Arizona primaries next Tuesday. At times the exchanges between Romney and Santorum got very testy. It is clear the two of them don't like each other. A potential ramification of this personal animosity is that if Santorum wins Michigan and a few states on super Tuesday and forces the campaign to continue for weeks or months, uniting the party later will be harder. In particular, the obvious way to unite the party would be for Romney to choose Santorum as his running mate. But if the two men hate each other, it would be an awkward ticket. It's happened before--John Kennedy thought Lyndon Johnson to be a stupid country yokel, but he needed Johnson on the ticket to win Texas.

Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich also showed up last night.

So now it is up to the voters in Michigan and Arizona. If Santorum manages to pull off victories in both states, the Republican elite is going to be in a state of complete panic. If Romney wins both, it is back to business as usual, with Romney the expected nominee. In less than a week we will know.

Of Vaginas and Veeps     Permalink

Just as the Virginia state legislature was poised to pass a bill requiring any woman requesting an abortion in Virginia to have an ultrasound probe inserted into her vagina so she could view the fetus (typically 1/8 inch long when the procedure is normally done), Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) suddenly announced he didn't like the idea so much. Out of the blue, he decided that the invasive procedure, which some people have said is akin to rape, was not a good idea. Undoubtedly this change of mind came about as he thought about a potential vice presidential debate with Joe Biden in October. McDonnell is widely touted as a potential running mate for Mitt Romney, should Romney finally wrap it up and become the nominee, but support for a law that many women find repugnant would surely diminish his chances for being chosen for the Veep slot. As with Santorum, all an opponent needs is one thing you have done in the past that the current electorate does not like and it becomes the main thrust of his campaign.

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