COMMENTARY | Fresh in the news are the victories of Mitt Romney in Arizona and Michigan. Arizona did not come as a surprise. Michigan was surprising in its competitiveness. This was a state where everyone thought he did not even need to compete. He was born and raised there. Some observers are expressing doubts about his ability to sustain his leadership position in these caucuses. Let me categorically state that after all the hurdles he had to overcome he will win the GOP nomination.
I only see two things that need to happen in order to prevent Romney’s showdown with Obama. One is the white knight candidate that the some sectors of the GOP party seem to crave. I do not believe anyone on that short list of possible “white knights” is going to throw their hat into the ring. The downside of that idea for that candidate that comes in this late is if he or she does not win the nomination the full blame of losing an election to Obama would be squarely his responsibility. He would be known as someone who split the vote and further weakened the GOP candidate coming out of this contest.
The other thing is for all the so-called conservative candidates to drop out in favor of supporting Santorum. Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich’s percentages of the vote in Michigan combined with Santorum’s portion of the vote beats Romney’s by a convincing margin. Santorum now is the definite anti-Romney. I am sure that as things look no one believes that Gingrich has a better chance to beat Romney than Santorum.
Romney needs to dig deep into the grass roots movement. He better hope he stops alienating the demographic of those who make less than $100,000. There are two schools of thought with regards to his victory in Michigan. One says it shows a definite vulnerability. I say what with all the crossover voting by Democratic voters it wasn’t that close.
Romney wins this nomination, like it or not. Even the Democrats in Michigan see him as a threat. What reason on Earth would cause them to participate and vote in any GOP activity?