Replies

However, his statement is also true if Newt wins and I’m not ready to give up. You’re assumption is that Romney will be then nominee. I’m not ready to declare him the winner of the whole dang pie.

There are MANY more primaries to go. You are absolutely right about that. I'm not ready to declare Romney the winner of the "whole dang pie" either.

But David Limbaugh is no idiot. He chooses his words carefully. And in his own words, he urges us to vote for the eventual winner of the GOP primary, whoever that may be.

But as David Limbaugh knows, no honest conservative can vote for the gun-grabbing, pro-abortion, pro-homosexualist, statism-loving socialist that is Mitt Romney. So he couches his words coyly, in an effort to appeal to the "reason" of conservatives. How does he do this? By claiming that as a Santorum supporter, he is a true-blue conservative. He understands us. He is one of us. He knows what is best for the country.

And then he drops the bomb: (Paraphrashing): "But if the conservative Santorum doesn't win, it is incumbent upon all of us, as good conservatives, to still support the GOP nominee to defeat Obama."

Limbaugh knows perfectly well that if the nominee is Gingrich, conservatives will support him. We already do. That's understood. So, in effect, Limbaugh is asking conservatives to vote for that which they vociferously oppose today: Romney.

That's why I claim Limbaugh's "support" of Santorum is disingenuous, misleading, manipulative, and cynical.

I think your parsing of DL reads in too much cynicism on his part. I think he genuinely sees Santorum as the true conservative, not Newt. I think he’s rigidly applying the formula that one should support the purest conservative in the primary and then suck it up and support whoever the nominee happens to be in the general. Unfortunately in our present circumstances this could very well help Romney get the nomination. But I don’t think this means he’s starting with a desire to see Romney get it. I just think that’s where his adherence to the formula takes him. I would say that he realizes this on some level, and I would guess that he himself isn’t totally comfortabe with the implications of what he’s written. I think he’s being formulaic and inflexible, maybe even a little bit naive, but not cynical. I don’t think DL is an establishment guy or a cynic, but I think he has managed to wedge himself into a position that can look that way from certain angles.