easy, it’s a 3 way race and Romney’s ads are effective at pushing people to the alternative (Santorum)
If Santorum were to drop out, they would have no where to go and the negative ads wouldn’t work as well.
Romney is in the perfect position, he can ignore Santorum (thus making him look better than he is) because Santorum will never pose a threat, while firing relentlessly at Gingrich. Romney has to thread the needle to win this, and he is pulling it off so far. However if Santorum leaves the race it’s a whole new ballgame and Romney will have to give people a reason to vote for him and not against Newt.
Santorum’s stock has hit rock bottom after this Florida maneuver of his, designed clearly to prop up Romney. There is no guarantee that his lousy 16 percent in FL, now fallen to 9% in one poll, would move entirely to Gingrich, but had Santorum suspended after South Carolina, a large part of it after Newt’s blowout there certainly would have moved to Newt.
A blistering shame on Santorum. This morning Jeb Bush didn’t sound entirely disinterested in running by a long shot, so if Newt goes down and delegates are in the air, look for Jeb to get in. Santorum is wasting our time trying to kill off Newt.
I’ve been hoping Romney’s smear attack would backfire on him. So much for that, I guess.