Saturday night, Rick Santorum handily won the Louisiana Primary. It was a nice win for the Senator. Further, it showed the weakness of Mitt Romney as a Republican nominee. Once again, Mittens has failed to win a Southern state. Finally, it showed that Newt is pretty much out of lives in this game. The only way Newt is the nominee from where I sit is if he somehow ends up as the choice of a brokered convention. (Which isn’t a likely scenario in my opinion.)
It’s not surprising the South is consolidating behind the conservatives. So far, Speaker Gingrich has won Georgia and South Carolina. Senator Santorum has won Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, and now Louisiana. Mittens has only taken Florida, which, given that half of the state is New Yorkers, hardly qualifies as Southern; and Virginia, which he can’t really claim victory because both Gingrich and Santorum weren’t on the ballot.
Now I do want to correct a major misconception amongst many conservatives whose zeal outweighs their logic sometimes. If Romney is the nominee I flat out guarantee he will win Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Louisiana in the general election. A liberal Democrat has about as much chance to win those states as a trout has living in a pond in a grizzly bear’s cave. (And no, before somebody trying to sound smart brings it up, it’s because Obama’s a liberal. His skin tone doesn’t have anything to do with it. John Kerry and Al Gore lost in those states…must be because Kerry and Gore are black men, right?)
However, our chances to have a candidate more conservative than Romney are shrinking by the day. I know some of you are big Newt fans…I am too, remember…but I also would rather my second choice than Mittens. Senator Santorum has shown he can win this thing if we consolidate behind him. If we don’t, our only chance of better than Romney is a brokered convention…and that brokered convention also comes with the potential to do worse than Romney. The choice is ours.
