Even though he is Mitt Romney's biggest competition at the moment, Rick Santorum trails the former Massachusetts governor in delegate math, national popularity, and campaign cash, leaving a wide berth for Romney's comfort. While both are taking Easter weekend off from campaigning and the next round of primaries aren't for a couple more weeks (April 24th) and are all in the Northeast (Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania), an increasing number of voices are chiming in that the time has come for the GOP to unite around a single nominee, and more people are joining the chorus saying that that nominee is Mitt Romney.
Pennsylvania, with 72 delegates up for grabs, is Rick Santorum's home state, and he's already admitted that "we have to win" in the Keystone state to keep his momentum going. Unfortunately for Santorum, a PPP poll had Romney edging ahead in Pennsylvania this past week, and it looks like he plans to be aggressive in the runup to the state's primary:
In an attempt to eject Rick Santorum from the presidential race by force, Mitt Romney’s campaign will unveil a nearly $2 million television ad buy on the Pennsylvania airwaves beginning on Monday.
According to sources tracking TV ad spending the buy, totaling $1.9 million, is widespread, hitting media markets from Philadelphia to Erie between April 9 and April 22 — two days before the state’s April 24 primary. ...
But officials with the Santorum campaign say they do not plan to let the Romney ad buy go unanswered.
“We’ll make an ad buy, no question about that,” Santorum’s national communications director Hogan Gidley told ABC News on Saturday, noting that although the campaign has yet to purchase any airtime, he fully expects they will do so “soon.” ...
The pro-Romney super PAC, Restore Our Future, has also purchased air time in Pennsylvania ahead of the primary as well as in New York, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island — the other states that are also holding nominating contests on April 24.
If Santorum's ads are all going to be like the one below, then I'm inclined to agree with the people calling for him to drop out. It is time to unite around the GOP's 2012 champion, come hell or high water, and ads like this one are just sowing discord and do nothing to help the party defeat Barack Obama in November.
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