I take your point now and it is an appreciable point. Yes, ultimately it will be the voters who decide who gets elected.
However, they both cannot continue to run and one of them will win. As long as both are in the race, they will siphon potential voters from each other and Romney will walk up the middle and win.
It won’t be a case of Newt burning out and Santorum taking his place. It will be a case that, if they keep siphoning votes from each other, they will both be holding a bag of nothing. You can’t split a 60 percent vote about even and expect to overcome the nobody choice, who happens to have 40 percent of the vote.
In states where there is proportional delegates, it would work well having two candidates getting votes.
It hurts in states where winner takes all.
It would have been GREAT in Virginia, where they do proportional unless a candidate gets 50%, then they take all the delegates. Unfortunately, neither Gingrich nor Santorum are on the ballot, and with only two candidates ONE of them is getting all the votes — and I can’t imagine Ron Paul getting 50% of the vote, no matter how many people play electoral games.
on the other hand, if Rasmussen’s latest is to be believed, if every one of Santorum’s votes went to Gingrich, it wouldn’t be enough. (44 romney, 28+12=40 Gingrich/Santorum)
Also, another recent poll showed that the 2nd choice for Santorum supporters was split evenly, 37% gingrich, 36% Romney).
BTW, in some states it would be better to have more candidates. For example, in Virginia if nobody gets 50%, the delegates are assigned proportionally. Unfortunately, neither Gingrich nor Santorum made our ballot, so with only two candidates, Romney is likely to meet the 50% (I can’t imagine Ron Paul will get more votes than Romney).
Santorum may have hurt Romney in South Carolina. The plurality winner in each district got the delegates, and in some districts if Romney had managed to get a few more of Santorum’s votes than Gingrich, Romney might have won some delegates.
If it turns out Gingrich has a ceiling of support that is under 50%, and if most of Gingrich’s support is really “not-romney”, and therefore would easily move to Santorum, it is possible that Newt dropping out would actually beat Romney, while Santorum dropping out might not.