Posted on 01/15/2012 4:19:59 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Pro-family leaders today forged a consensus in support of Rick Santorum at meeting at a private ranch in Texas. Santorum is eminently worthy of social conservative support. He has easily been the most vocal and the most unwavering of all the candidates in standing for the sanctify of life and the sanctity of marriage, and against the homosexual agenda. He is an easy candidate to back.
But what he lacks to run a nationwide campaign is money and infrastructure, which evangelicals probably can't give him. Rick Perry, on the other hand, has the organization and the fund-raising capacity. What he needed was evangelical support, which he did not get. The floor seems to have fallen out from under him, a sad thing in my estimation since he seemed best-positioned to defeat Romney in the primary and Obama in the general.
The third and final vote was 84-31 in favor of Santorum over Newt Gingrich, with Perry being dropped after two ballots. What I anticipate will happen is that the Gingrich supporters will quickly organize a joint endorsement, while the Santorum endorsements will dribble out over the course of the week, perhaps blunting their impact. I anticipate that we will even see some prominent evangelicals, maybe even some who were in attendance in Texas this weekend, publicly endorse Romney. They'll come out early — no reason to wait after today — and again, that will blunt the effect of today's consensus vote. People will say, hey, wait a minute, I thought everybody was behind Santorum.
In other words, it would be helpful if the 84 Santorum endorsers found a way to jointly issue an endorsement, and soon. The Gingrich and Romney endorsements will probably get a lot of ink this week, while today's decision, happening on a weekend, could quickly fade unless it is reinforced over the course of this critical week.
The highest profile Santorum endorsers should make it a priority to campaign for him this week in South Carolina, the one thing they may be able to do to make up for Santorum's lack of money and infrastructure. Santorum still faces huge pragmatic obstacles, in my judgment, but definitely got enough spring in his step today to clear some of them.
They will be forgetting that they, like Ann Coulter, cannot be both Conservatives and Romney supporters.
Interesting, Non? (A little French there).
That is an excellent point.
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