Yesterday, Mitt Romney won the Florida Primary by a fairly comfortable margin, thus winning all of the state’s 50 primary delegates. My candidate, Newt Gingrich, came in second, with Rick Santorum in a distant third and Ron Paul as the official Florida Caboose.
Mittens fought hard to win this one. Ten days ago when he lost South Carolina, Newt had surged to the front of the Florida pack. Then the debates happened. Usually in this campaign, Newt has had Mitt and pretty much everyone else for lunch in the debates. Yet not this time. Mitt showed some backbone in the debates and actually showed some fight. This battle is by no means over, but for Heaven’s sake Mittens, if you end up our nominee, you BETTER take this level of fight to Obama and not wuss out like John McCain did in 2008. I mean it. I want to see this kind of fight from you if you’re the nominee, because you will beat Obama if you fight like that. If you wimp out, however, you can join Bob Dole and John McCain in the losers box at the Republican Conventions for the next three decades.
Speaker Gingrich fought hard in Florida, but it’s important to remember that Florida, regardless of its geography, is not culturally the South. It’s one of the more moderate states. So it’s not that surprising that Mittens would do well. But the next six states are split down the middle between Newt and Mitt. This fight is going to go on for a while. As a sign at Newt HQ said last night, 46 States to go.
Which brings us to Rick Santorum. Senator Santorum, I like you man. I really do. But it’s time for real reflection. Since your win in Iowa, you’ve gotten 9% in New Hampshire, 16% in South Carolina and now 13% in Florida. My friend, you are doing more to nominate Mitt Romney than pretty much anyone else. We need to consolidate the conservative vote, and right now you don’t have the money or the support to be the consolidator. It’s a two person race. It’s a choice between the conservative Newt Gingrich and the more moderate Mitt Romney. I’ve gone on record as saying you’d be a great Vice Presidential nominee for Newt. But I have to say it: It’s time for you to get out and let the conservative vote consolidate.
This primary showed that once again, this is going to be a long campaign. It’s not a bad thing. As I’ve continued to say, Barack Obama is infinitely beatable, as a matter of fact he is landslideable. It’s ok for the Mitt and Newt to fight this out for a few months yet, the fools in the Democratic Party are going to run Obama! So let’s fight this out and let the best man win.
