I don’t think so. JLo and her stooges at NR have been in the tank for Romney for about six years. And the fact that he never could make it much above 20% last time around didn’t seem to make them think about switching. He was actually getting slightly higher poll numbers this time. For a while.
Time will tell. What if NR wants to win? Whatever made them back Romney in the first place? They thought he could win.
So, when it becomes increasingly clear that he can’t (we knew this long ago, but they’re slow on the uptake), they might just change their minds.
Keep in mind the Catholic background of NR. The neo-cons (Jewish) have dominated, yes. But there were also Catholic neo-cons (Weigel) and the residual Catholic conservatism may still be a work there. As long as they honestly thought Romney was more electable and Santorum was impossible, they went one way.
What no one has really pointed out yet is that what is fueling this Santorum surge is that a lot of people for months have liked his positions best but just plain thought he would never break out of single digits.
When he began to seem “possible” an awful lot of people backing other candidates they really weren’t enthused about, took another look at him.
And liked what they saw, compared to the dipsticks they were backing.
Include NR, who were backing Romney even though they know he’s a dipstick.
Sure, it’s easier to blindly assume NR folks are idiots. Don’t have to think very hard that way.
But sometimes it pays to entertain new possibilities. Perhaps the folks at NR aren’t idiots.