Just when I thought the Republican Primary race had settled down to the terribly boring, utterly predictable, and fatalistic finale end game, Rick Santorum goes and proves that the ‘Not Romney’ votes still has life.
On Saturday, while my friends and I were watching the first four Harry potter films, Mitt Romney was busy wrapping up the state of Nevada with impression vote totals and appeared ready to cruise, much to the horror of all true conservative, to the nomination. Yesterday, while I has having a broken tooth repaired and attending my writers’ group meeting, Rick Santorum was busily storming the beaches of Fortress Mitt, landing an expedition that snatched up three states and zero delegates.
Given that no delegates were at stake many, primarily Romney supporters, were discounting the wins a meaningless, but that of course ignore the entire positive psychological effect of being a winner. Gingrich, the former not Romney appears to have taken a blow to his zombie brain, and not being a trioxin zombie, may be reducing to gnawing on Mitt’s ankles.
Now, with three wins surprisingly under his belt the question is just how much money can Santorum raise quickly. Money, his and his super-PAC’s, is the, as biologist say, the limiting factor in the competition. Romney buried Newt under an extinction level event sized asteroid of negative ads in Florida, but ignored Santorum in yesterday’s contests. That inattention will not continue.
Like battalions of Sardaukar descending upon a rebellious Imperial House, Romney’s money and allies are going to attack Santorum and I expect in the end leave nothing but a bloodied corpse. However, the critical questions is how many battalions will it take and just at what cost? Romney’s resources and time are not unlimited, and the general election will be upon us quicker than a private equity manager shifting his pay over to the capital gains columns.
It’s not going to be boring. It’s not going to be clean. It’s not going to be cost free, but, oh my, it is going to be interesting.
By the time my state goes to the primary I still expect this to be over, but frankly I wouldn’t put money on that.
A side question for my Republican readers – should Newt suffer a sudden bout of rationality or loss of funds and drops out before California, does that mean you guys are now going to vote for Santorum?