A growing avalanche of Republican support has been orchestrated to push the grassroots to embrace Governor Mitt Romney. Only halfway through the primary, Republican leaders are telling voters the decision is made. Mitt Romney will be the Republican Candidate for President of the United States. Will Wisconsin voters fall into line on Tuesday’s primary or will they speak with a mind of their own?
In 2008 John McCain took the nomination to a less than enthusiastic response. But when Sarah Palin hit the stage in Minneapolis, the roof nearly came off the convention center. The base was electrified. One of the first campaign stops was Wisconsin. Crowds were enormous as Wisconsinites craned their necks to get a glimpse of the new conservative VP candidate.
One man stood to express the exasperation many conservatives felt with the clueless McCain, who had been facing Barack Obama with timidity and deference: “Fight for us, Senator McCain! Fight for us!” McCain pulled the mike close, delivered his signature grunt-laugh, and made a joke. The Heartland’s heart sunk to realize the former war hero had become their hapless champion against a formidable foe he didn’t even understand.
Why then are so many Republican leaders rushing to anoint a similar candidate, Mitt Romney, who describes President Barack Obama as a “nice man” who “just doesn’t understand?” For some it is a matter of power. They fear a conservative candidate, in spite of the fact that no moderate Republican has won the nomination in years; Gerald Ford, Bob Dole, John McCain: all moderates, all losers. The only Republican to win during those lost decades was conservative Ronald Reagan, after battling the same Republican Establishment.
There is much to be gained by supporting Mitt Romney. There are nominations for Vice President to be considered and payoffs of campaign debt. This might explain Newt Gingrich’s reportedly “very friendly” meeting with Governor Romney last week. There is an orchestrated effort by insiders in Washington and by the Romney camp sweetening the deal for anyone who will come his way.
But the race is not over! Walter Shapiro has articulated it beautifully in “Why is the Press so ready to Count Santorum Out?”
Right now only one man stands in the way of Mitt Romney getting the Republican nomination. Rick Santorum is statistically tied with Romney in North Carolina, ahead in Pennsylvania by double digits, strong in California and Nebraska, yet many are clamoring for him to get out of the race.
Rick Santorum was eloquent and powerful in almost every brief debate exchange. But afterward pundits ignored him. Why? Romney, who had been campaigning for president since 2007, had quietly begun donating to conservative organizations and media outlets. He had strategically positioned himself for the nomination well before the candidates ever took the stage.
But he can’t buy the American people. And even now after spending millions, he has low support among Republican voters and a very high unfavorable rating.
While Rick Santorum steadfastly holds to the convictions of conservative America, Mitt Romney has been shirring up support for his candidacy by changing positions on issues like gun control, global warming, cap and trade, and certainly government healthcare. Romney’s advisors on Romney Care were later advisors on Obamacare.
If his so-called conversion to pro-life was so profound why was the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, given a place on a board for Romney Healthcare and why does his plan offer abortions for a $50 co-pay?
As soon as “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” was repealed for the military Romney issued a statement that he would do nothing to reverse it if elected.
Who at EPA just issued green house gas regulations to effectively ban new coal-fired power plants? Romney’s former green energy advisor, Gina McCarthy. Part of Romney’s campaign money can be traced to radical environmentalists like Julian Robertson who funded the efforts behind passing cap and trade. John Holdren, who believes in population control through forced abortion and compulsory sterilization, currently serves as Barack Obama’s top science czar and was once part of Governor Mitt Romney’s policy team.
Unlike Mitt Romney, Santorum is fully committed to stopping the march to the Left on moral, social, economic and national security issues.
Americans are tired of beltway disingenuousness. Many find Rick Santorum’s candor refreshing, like an elixir to our politically correct, mind-numbed interactions.
Where does this boldness from Santorum come from? Perhaps partly from his family’s odyssey with Bella. Bella Santorum is three years, diagnosed with Trisomy 18, and who, in a bout of uncontrollable seizures, was recently nearly lost to them during the campaign.
American voters should know that almost 90% of husbands and fathers leave their families when they have disabled children. It takes characterto absorb the blows of disappointment, endure exhaustion and endless sorrow, and stay.
That’s an indicator of what kind of a man Rick Santorum is and what kind of a president he might be: Steadfast. Committed to the best for his American family just as he for his own.
Wisconsin has given us some of the finest public servants in recent years. From Paul Ryan to Ron Johnson to Scott Walker. They have done a great service to the nation in infiltrating it with leaders of character.
Will they now allow Washington to tell them who they should select as a candidate for the next president of the United States?
Conservatives around the country will be watching on Tuesday’s primary to see.