My comment to their article currently going through their “approval” process...
You conveniently neglected to mention that Newt currently has garnered far more popular votes than Santorum, 838,715 vs. 431,819. Newt is the only one to win a state where turnout MASSIVELY increased in this primary, South Carolina with about a 35% increase in turnout. All other states were flat or suffered decreased turnout. That shows Newt is the only one of the bunch who has, at least once, shown the ability to catch fire with the public. And if not for Florida breaking the winner-take-all rule, I believe Newt would also have more delegates than Santorum.
That being said, there’s no question the momentum is on Santorum’s side. But I suspect the real reason you want Newt to drop out of the race is because you have endorsed Romney and Romney’s path to victory becomes much easier if he has only one opponent left to attack. Right now, Romney is forced to play Whack-a-mole with his negative ads. When he whacked Newt, Santorum popped up. If he now whacks Santorum, Newt may pop up again. Romney’s at a messaging disadvantage having to train fire on two targets. He divides his resources across two different fronts and risks looking like a desperate and vindictive candidate. He might be able to make people believe that one or the other of his opponents is the devil incarnate, but people may become more skeptical if the message becomes, “Everybody in this race is the spawn of Satan except for me!”
Santorum said in a September FOX News debate that, of the people on the stage, he would select Newt as his Vice Presidential nominee. I suspect both Newt and Rick have devised a two-front strategy to take Romney out and later join forces on the same ticket. I suspect one will withdraw at the time and place of their choosing, most likely soon before the bulk of the winner-take-all states start voting. For now, they can collect proportional delegates which, if necessary, can be released to one or the other at a brokered convention to put their combined total above Romney’s.
“Romney is forced to play Whack-a-mole with his negative ads. When he whacked Newt, Santorum popped up. If he now whacks Santorum, Newt may pop up again. Romney’s at a messaging disadvantage having to train fire on two targets.”
You are reading my mind! The path to eliminating Romney is through the continuation of both the Santorum and Gingrich campaigns. This makes Romney bleed money in negative ads and leaves no time to tell us what he would do (which probably isn’t much). NRO crapped all over Newt in this piece, but in reality, he’s the guy who would shake things up, not Santorum.