In most cases, a two-on-one fight would be considered unfair
to the lone contender. However, the
Republican Primary is not most cases.
Rather than it being a team ready to attack President Obama, Rick Santorum
and Mitt Romney are more like (in an effort not to sound extremely nerdy) an allegiance
from the Hunger Games, they have picked off all of the smaller contender
and now that there is only one big fish left, they have realized that one of
them will ultimately have to kill the other, resulting in them turning on each
other. By doing this, Santorum is giving
Obama a huge advantage, by not only alienating Republicans from Romney, but by
also preventing Romney from focusing on Obama.
Santorum and his aides have acknowledged that despite having
a small following, his chances of receiving the Republican nomination are slim,
but they will not stop fighting. This
could only be better for Obama if Santorum was an independent who has close
ties with the Republican Party, but doesn’t support its candidate. By turning people away from Romney, with help
from Obama, Romney is losing not only the Democrats and Liberals, but also
Republicans who agree with Santorum: Romney is too moderate. Santorum couldn’t be doing a better job. By the time the Republicans announce their
candidate (big surprise on who that will be), Obama would be more than well
rested and ready to fight, while the Republicans would still be recovering from
their most recent battle from within their own party.
From a Republican view of things, this might seem
counter-productive to have the party fighting amongst themselves when they
should really be focusing on Obama. However,
like many others, I do not mind this development in the slightest. Let them fight amongst themselves and left
the wounded victor to try to salvage those who had been on the other side while
facing the brunt of Obama’s campaign. So
go ahead and fight to the death Republicans, and remember one thing as you put
in tons of money and time on this campaign, we will all be waiting for you at
the main event. And we will be ready.
In Ms. Hinojosa's editorial, she believes that the Republican match between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum will drain their campaign resources and fatigue the candidate. This would result in an advantage for Obama's race to presidency. I do agree that this momentary attention divergence away from the Democratic will benefit Obama slightly, but there still are other factors to consider. Perhaps even the increased media coverage of the Republican party may end up as a form of free media used to campaign their platform.
ReplyDeleteWhile Santorum uses his more Republican conservative approach against the more moderate Romney, we must remember that American citizens tend to be more moderate. Santorum still hasn't dropped out of the race despite his dwindling campaign funds (on the other hand, Romney has been spending big bucks from PACs and his own wealth which may come back to bite him in the finals). Santorum has begun to take more personal approaches to campaign which we have learned can make a big difference. Pennsylvanian delegate votes are Santorum's priority right now and he hopes to win the majority vote in Texas, giving him 154 delegates due to the primary process explained in Ch. 12 of our textbook.
Another factor that can sway voters is the who Romney or Santorum and Obama may choose as their vice president. In the 2008 elections, John McCain's decision of Sarah Palin as vice president crushed his chances of being elected. According to CNN, the smarter choice is to have a "boring" vice president that will in other words be ready to take on presidency and do the job. We are unsure who Romney (the more likely Republican candidate) will select as vice president and if Obama will chose Joe Biden again. This decision is a potential game changer.
Resources:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/05/politics/santorum-stays-in/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/09/opinion/zelizer-romney-vice-president/index.html