I wonder if Patton, Halsey or Eisenhower would have ever been talked into abandoning their campaigns simply because the odds seem stacked against them...
Agreed. Maybe that's why some of them stay out of politics.
You won't hear me disagreeing with your point that many evangelicals are politically naive.
Furthermore, I am the first one to respect the military victories of American patriots who defeated enemies of freedom but who were themselves steeped in sin, or sometimes open enemies of the Cross. Our modern American military is heavily Southern and therefore considerably more Christian than it has been at many times in the past. God is perfectly capable of using weak vessels as well as utter unbelievers to accomplish His will — after all, Osama bin Laden’s compound was attacked under Barack Obama’s orders — but that doesn't mean we should choose weak or unbelieving candidates if better choices are available.
What you will hear me saying is that poll data shows that if Santorum left the race, a significant percentage of his supporters would go to Romney, not Gingrich. CharlesWayneCT has some interesting data showing that Santorum voters are split on their second choice about evenly between Romney and Gingrich.
Poll and commentary here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2840285/posts?page=58#58
My guess is that's due to the “family values” concern and the lack of awareness of just how bad Romney's prior positions on abortion really were. if that's the case — and other Freepers have posted poll data which seems to prove their case — having Santorum leave will do very little to help Gingrich and might very well help Romney.
You'll also hear me saying that this race has been so volatile that I don't think any of the three frontrunners should yet be counted out. Ron Paul has no chance but I think the other three have a realistic shot at winning.
Gingrich basically came back from the dead to take the second-place position in the last few months. He deserves credit for that. If he wins the nomination I can't see any reason today why I wouldn't vote for him.
But it wasn't that long ago that very few people thought he had a chance. He was being attacked on Free Republic and elsewhere as a big-government Washington insider with a history of bad positions on key issues who had no chance of winning.
That was unfair to Gingrich then, and many of those same criticisms are being leveled against Santorum today. They're just as unfair today about Santorum today as they were about Gingrich back then.