Allahpundit is dubious over whether they'll have much of an impact, but the Angry Left is mobilizing to tilt the GOP nominating process in Rick Santorum's favor. Why? I'll let them explain:
It's time for us to take an active role in the GOP nomination process. That's right, it's time for those of us who live in open primary and caucus states—Michigan, North Dakota, Vermont and Tennessee in the next three weeks—to head out and cast a vote for Rick Santorum.
Republican turnout has sucked, and appears to be getting worse by the contest. Unlike the 2008 Democratic primaries, which helped President Barack Obama and the Democrats to build a national organization, the GOP is an organizational disaster, with waning voter interest. That means that it takes fewer votes to have an impact than if Republican turnout was maxed out.
Several of the contests have produced razor-thin margins of victory. Rick Santorum won Iowa by 34 votes, Mitt Romney "won" Maine by 194 votes. It won't take many of us to swing contests the way we want them to swing.
The longer this GOP primary drags on, the better the numbers for Team Blue. Not only is President Barack Obama rising in comparison to the clowns in the GOP field, but GOP intensity is down—which would have repercussions all the way down the ballot.
The longer this thing drags out, the more unpopular the Republican presidential pretenders become. Just look at Mitt Romney's trajectory, which followed Herman Cain's trajectory, and Newt Gingrich's trajectory, and Michelle Bachmann's trajectory, and so on. Rick Santorum will inevitably follow the same path once he gets properly vetted. Mitt Romney has been unable to stem the bleeding despite his tens of millions. Just imagine Santorum, with the far more radical record and a continued inability to raise real money. And in any case, it's freaking hilarious. I mean, Rick Santorum? Really? The Republicans have offered up this big, slow, juicy softball. Let's have fun whacking the heck out of it.
Feel free to pick apart their analysis, but it's clear that the Kosmonauts believe Santorum would be the easier mark in a general election. These are the hardest of the hardcore, too. The Kos Kids' ringleader urges his disciples to engage not only to help affect the top shelf contest, but because "Nancy Pelosi's gavel and a Senate run by Mitch McConnell" are also at stake. These people pine for the restoration of Speaker Nancy, and are passionate about retaining Majority Leader Reid. I simply cannot relate to the mentality of celebrating grating personalities and ineptitude, but then again, I'm not a liberal. Conservatives -- especially Rush, whose cheeky maneuver Kos is ripping off here -- often say that Republicans shouldn't allow the media and the Left (a redundancy, I realize) to "pick our nominee." If that's the case, what are we to make of Chris Matthews' assertion that the press is openly rooting for Santorum? Watch and ponder:
Are media types just fond of an old-fashioned, ratings-boosting, ennui-pulverizing political fist fight -- as Matthews suggests -- or are they happy to offer a few primary season assists to the guy they're confident they can destroy in the fall? Verdict in the comments section, please.