Rick Santorum’s chances of being the GOP presidential nominee are just about a mathematical impossibility, yet the candidate keeps insisting he can win. Every once in a while, his campaign has a moment that has no impact on the ultimate outcome except to reaffirm the Santorum unreality. The latest case in point: his win in the Louisiana, where the large evangelical population and low-cost media market made it tailor-made for Santorum and where the low delegate count made it too small for Romney to break a fingernail on.
The victory reaffirms once again the strong tie that Santorum has forged between Catholics (or at least Catholic bishops and their disciples) and evangelicals, something we noted almost a month ago but that’s now official because The New York Times just drew the same conclusion. That won’t do Santorum much good this year, but assuming Romney goes down in flames (and Romney does like to use his mouth to set fire to his own claims that he’s conservative), Santorum is the de facto front runner for 2016 as the runner-up this time out. Having the religious right as your organizing force is a pretty handy place to start a campaign even if it is self-defeating in the long run.
But now the jig is just about up for Santorum. The Republican establishment–they who direct the big checks and write the party hymn book–is now gunning hard for Santorum to drop out. In fact, Santorum”s campaign is so disorganized there is virtually no difference between his dropping out and his continuing on, except for the embarrassment his presence causes Romney. A strong campaigner would have vanquished a gnat like Santorum ages ago, but through a combination of gaffe-making and distrust among the base, the Romney campaign keeps breathing life into the zombies lurching behind him. It could last weeks, or it could last months, but the Santorum campaign is dead. It just isn’t buried yet.
Photo via Gage Skidmore
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declanto
Please, Dan Savage, do your hate-f*ck on this swallower in public.
Clark
Louisiana has a large Catholic population, something you failed to mention.
Cam
After Lincoln was shot, the country ignored the concilliatory tone he wanted to take with the former confederate states and instead really ground them down under the boot for decades. Just like what happened to Germany after World War One.
Having to deal with the southern states picks for President would seem to be Karma biting the rest of the country in the ass.
Either that or there is no such thing as Karma and evangellical voters are just stupid bigots. You know, you say tomato…….
1equalityUSA
fluke
Kevin
@Cam: If by “ground them under the boot for decades” you mean “attempted to ensure the civil rights of freed slaves for a little while then gave up and decided that getting along with the white neighbors was more important in the long run” then yeah, I guess that’s a good argument.
Kevin
@Cam: Also, point of fact, due to the Weimar government’s policy of hyper-inflation, there was actually a net INFLOW of money into Germany between the wars.
Belize
@Clark: Not all Catholics are stupid enough to think that the Bible is indeed the word of God.