The LuLac Edition #1964, February 28th, 2012

Last men Standing, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.


Michigan primary logo.

KEEPING THE WOLVES…….

The double victory tonight in the Michigan and Arizona primaries by Mitt Romney has kept the wolves at bay and reestablished the former Governor as the front runner for the GOP. Romney scored big in the Arizona thanks to Governor Jan Brewer and Senator John McCain. In Michigan, despite some clumsy campaign events that accentuated Romney’s rich boy dorkiness, Romney won the state by about 5 points. An argument can be made that Rick Santorum lost the state rather than Romney having won it. Santorum seemed to have lost his way the last two weeks taking on the current Democratic President, Barack Obama calling him a “snob” because he (Obama) wanted everyone to go to college. What Santorum did with this was just plain Barry Goldwater wild. He talked about left wing college professors (my friend Sue Henry is a college professor and is not left wing in any way shape or form) and talked about kids being indoctrinated into a liberal philosophy. That’s absurd. Ever since the 80s, I’ve seen more pro life Reagan followers among 80% of the college age kids I ran into. And my frustration was magnified even more in the 2004 race when a majority of twenty somethings I worked with voted overwhelmingly for George W. Bush. Plus, if you are going to take on a President, try Jimmy Carter for a bad economy, not the martyred but still beloved John F. Kennedy who still has an approval rate of 80% and is ranked in the top 8 of American Presidents by historians. (And even though I grew up with JFK, that is just plain wrong). Santorum would have been better off if he had stuck with his stump speech on the economy and his Pennsylvania coal miner roots and just shut up about religion, college and contraception. And to those who say the media kept on asking him, let me say that he is the candidate, he ultimately controls the message.
Romney on the other hand is well on his way to stumbling toward the nomination. The two victories have for now, temporally quelled the talk about a late entry from Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan or Mitch Daniels. It is entirely possible that the GOP might resign itself to the fact that they have a candidate who is not an exciting guy. There seems to be no real passion in Mitt Romney. But then again, there was no great passion for Richard Nixon who won two elections as President. I think if the GOP had its druthers, it would take a candidate without passion like Romney rather than an unguided missile like Rick Santorum. Santorum might have gotten away with some of the stuff he said leading up to these primaries but he looked angry. L.A. Tarone brought this up a few weeks back on Topic A. One candidate trait America does not like is an angry man. In the final analysis, maybe the GOP will pick Romney, unsure about how to connect rather than Santorum who has scared some people away with his rhetoric.
Unless something drastic happens, (the next primaries are Washington and Ohio) it will be Romney vs Obama……….. or the battle of the teleprompters.