"From
hereon in there is only one choice for Romney: try somehow to unite a party in dire
shape. But the primaries coming up in the South are more likely to favor
Santorum, whose level of extremism is hard for the French to assess, but who is
capable of saying that JFK's speech on the separation of Church and State made
him want to 'vomit.'"
Those in the venerable GOP [Grand Old Party] who had hoped Super Tuesday would be decisive and allow Mitt Romney to be seated as the party's nominee, had their hopes dashed.
Once again, the primaries
held in ten states have revealed one thing: a divided party that remains unable
to unite behind the moderate former governor of Massachusetts, to the point of
pitching dangerously to the right and being attracted by the lure of ultra-conservative
Rick Santorum.
So what's the problem with
Mitt Romney? Discussing this briefly with experts on American politics, the
same phrase often comes up. “Ten years ago he would have been the perfect
candidate, but today, Republicans are in such a mess nobody knows what’s going
on any more.”
So Mitt Romney’s success or
failure depends on this: the strange internal battle in which the GOP has been plunged
for several months. In fact, the sudden emergence of the populist Tea Party
movement, and the victories it garnered during the midterm elections of November
2010, has triggered a huge tug-of-war within the Republican Party.
Although the influence of the
Tea Party in Washington has declined, its ability to mobilize voters and be
heard on a local level has suddenly united every extreme faction, from anti-government
conservatives to Christians to isolationist libertarians.
Today it is the battle
between the “elite” and the “base” which is being played out in the primaries. Ask
any GOP baron who is the best candidate is, and they will answer, “Mitt Romney.”
Ask any conservative voter and they will answer, “Anyone but Mitt Romney.”
The fracture is so deep, that
even a charlatan like Newt Gingrich, a perfect example of a Washington
political hack playing the system for all it’s worth, can now present himself
as a “candidate of the base.”
From hereon in there is only
one choice for Romney: try somehow to unite a party in dire shape. But the
primaries coming up in the South are more likely to favor Santorum, whose level
of extremism is hard for the French to assess, but who is capable of saying
that JFK's speech on the separation of Church and State made him want to “vomit.”
For the moment, at least there
is one person enjoying himself: Barack Obama. When asked if he had anything to
say to Romney before Super Tuesday, the president responded with a big smile, “I
wish him luck … really, I wish him well.”
