I think this works best if Newt endorses Santorum and Santorum says Newt will be his V.P and agrees to adopt some of Newt’s economic platform. They need to push themselves as a team. It’s my gut feeling that they’ll see their total votes after that equal what their combined vote is now and maybe even get bigger, since it will be a major media event, and might help them win frontrunner status and more of the confidence of voters.
These are two people who now cannot win the nomination straight-up and who MUST come together as a team at the convention to win it if they win it at all. Therefore there is no reason they should not team up AHEAD of time, especially when the math shows that would make them more likely to win. 2/3rds of the upcoming delegates fall under some form of winner-take-all rules (it’s only been about 40% up until now, and most under the less strict rules). Together, with all the votes going to one guy, it is simply a certainty they will get more delegates in those contests than they would by splitting the vote. Hard to say how many, but every single delegate counts now with Romney as close as he is to 1,144 once you add in all his guaranteed future wins.
I stand by my points.
Newt is a leader and a President.
That won’t make him one in reality if he doesn’t get the votes, I fully understand.
Neither does that make Santorum the go to.
You are making him the mathematical, the technical go to.
But even you would have to admit, that alone cannot guarantee anything.
You don’t know what the various players will do or say or what will come up against them. You don’t know what Newt voters would do. You don’t know how to make silk purses into sows ears or how to hammer square pegs into round holes.
Newt should have never been left in the dirt by the roadside just because Romney virtually destroyed him in a few days, and Santorum was not the answer, then or now, against Romney, against Obama.
That’s what I see.
What you say is a valid scenario if you discount everything else.
Neither Santorum nor Newt strike me as team players, but for entirely different reasons.
Rick is on the record for cooperating, indulging and ingratiating himself with the Republican leadership, oblivious to the fact that he was not so highly regarded nor respected.
Newt is on the record for defying, thwarting and arm twisting those Republican pay to play types, and was therefore dreaded, cussed and plotted against, but he WAS respected by the GOP-E.
I see Newt willing to play now, having probably offered to play with the frat snot Rick months ago, seeing the writing on the wall, by way of his impeccable political instinct.
Rick has made a habit of doing only enough to get himself elected and flogged all things conservative to do it, never to bring them up on his own again, when in office.
I believe Rick will have to be mortally injured politically before his lightswitch snaps on to his need for Newt. Stubborn as Rick is, it will likely be too late then.
I am beginning to think our only chance is a rowdy media stealing hellfire missile launched by announcing a Newt Palin ticket! We need a MOVEMENT and there is no time left to peddle in peanuts it seems to me.
“Ain’t it awful” is a boring and non-productive course to take. We now need pitchforks.