We continue to be amused by all these attempts to argue that "Republicans don't want Romney" as he continues along, winning way more Republican votes than anybody else.
Last weekend when my radio dial chanced to loiter in the political talk segment of SiriusXM, I heard a little of an interview with a gent who was high up in the campaign of Rick Santorum. I didn't catch his name but he made the expected "it ain't over 'til it's over" point, then made two which struck me as contradictory. One was to cite a list of folks who were running behind at this point in a past election but who still went on to win the nomination. In other words, just because a guy (say, Santorum) doesn't have all the necessary delegates at this stage doesn't mean he won't win.
Okay. But then as he went into attack mode against Mitt Romney, he was talking about how Romney "can't close the deal with voters," which is proof they really don't want him and he can't win an election. In other words, just because a guy (say, Romney) doesn't have all the necessary delegates at this stage…well, that indicates he can't and won't win.
Santorum's rep was also trying to argue that all Romney has going for him is "the mantle of inevitability." Or to put it another way, people who really don't want him are voting for him because they hear other people are voting for him. I don't know how much truth there is in that. It seems to me Romney was leading the pack from the start, well before he could possibly have been viewed as "inevitable." But even if he is coasting on his frontrunner status, that's the way a lot of people win elections…and another way of saying, "A lot of people aren't voting for Rick Santorum because he looks like a loser."