I will say that I like Newt Gingrich, and think he would be at least a marginally better candidate than Santorum; he might also be a better PResident, in some ways but not in others.
IF Gingrich had been on my ballot in Virginia, I would have happily voted for him.
If Gingrich had competed in and won the states Santorum won, I would be happy, because it would mean we had coalesced.
He didn’t, and that’s the only reason I’m not “on board”. He’s skipping too many states, he’s got a strategy that guarantees nobody but Romney can win the nomination outright. But if he managed to pull off big wins next week, and managed to get back to polling first, and people stopped feeling negative about him, I’d be very happy.
So nothing his supporters do here makes any difference to my support of any candidate.
But part of me hopes that Santorum does it instead, simply to spite some of the Newt supporters here. And while I wish he had not collapsed in the polls, part of me wasn’t too upset, simply because of his supporters.
I understand your stance here, and I think it’s an entirely reasoned approach. We agree on some of it, and disagree on some of it, but I find that disagreement mild and appreciate the comments.
Thank you.
BTW: It does bother me that he is skipping states. His strategy does seem to be paying off, but there are times when you can be too cute by half, and he’s verging on that quite strongly with me.