As you sit down to watch some local television, you may notice a new barrage of advertisements that have hit the airwaves. These various smear-tactic advertisements were paid for largely by the super PACs supporting Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.
These two front runners for the Republican nomination are in a frenzy to try to collect the 1,144 delegates needed to become the republican nominee and go on to face President Obama. Currently Romney has 568 delegates and Santorum has 273, with Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul rapidly falling behind with 135 delegates and 50 delegates, respectively.
Looking between Romney and Santorum, the current statistics mean that Santorum would have to win 74 percent of the remaining delegates to win the nomination, according to an article by Stephen Ohlemacher of the Associated Press.
In these tense times, a lot of dirt is being thrown from both candidates. In fact, it is sometimes hard to believe that Romney and Santorum are technically on the same side of the fence as an opposition to Obama.
Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, is a very successful man by any standard. He’s surrounded by a beautiful, supportive, and loving family. He is wealthy beyond most Americans’ imaginations. His charismatic attitude and clean-cut, traditional persona has proven to be incredibly successful on a national level as he battles through the presidential primaries.
Former senator Rick Santorum has proved to be an unrelenting force, however, in the fight against Romney for the Republican candidacy in the general elections. Although Santorum is still quite a bit behind Romney in delegates, he has a growing amount of support publicly, and could make the rest of the primary race very interesting.
The enigma behind Santorum’s relative success in the primaries lies largely in the grassroots-style of his campaign. A rising star in the Republican Party, the former Pennsylvania senator is plaguing Romney with allegations of being the classic flip-flopper – a candidate who just says what he needs to say to please his audience.
Santorum, has made it very clear that he is well-situated in his ideals and political stances. He aligns himself closely with traditional, conservative Republican ideals.
National security is one of his top priorities and, as with the other candidates, the economy is playing a major role in his platform. His stance on social issues like gay marriage and abortion fall in the far-right of the political spectrum, and he is an outspoken conservative Catholic believer.
Romney is aware of the cult of personality that Santorum is aiming to create, but with a solid lead thus far in the primary elections, he hasn’t been driven to aim a full-on political attack at the relatively unknown Santorum.
Romney is cruising smoothly during this nomination cycle, waiting until his efforts are needed, without revealing his full plan of attack. Former advisor to President George W. Bush, Mark McKinnon, concurs stating, “Romney is playing things very methodically and deliberatively. I think he understands the physics of this game very well now and is carefully calibrating his approach to 2012.”
Santorum, on the other hand, is acknowledging that he is unlikely to keep up with Romney, at least fiscally, in a recent statement saying, “I can’t outspend him in Wisconsin, no way. But we can outwork him; we can do this!”
Wisconsin primary elections are held on April 3, 2012. Although that is still a week away, there are a lot of political games to be played in the race of the GOP nomination. Even though Santorum’s chances are slim, his hopes are set high, and he has said, “The race isn’t over until the people of Wisconsin sing.”