Desperate times call for desperate measures:
Rick Santorum is reassessing his campaign strategy this weekend, but he’s still committed to stopping Mitt Romney.
“BREAKING NEWS: Santo meeting in Virginia now w conservative leaders,” Time’s Mark Halperin tweeted. “Talk re the path forward, Santo-Newt unity effort to stop Romney.” Translation: Santorum meeting in Virginia now with conservative leaders. They are talking about the path forward, a Santorum-Newt unity effort to stop Romney.
Halperin added that a “Santor[um] source, responding to speculation: ‘He is NOT dropping out before Pennsylvania.’ [Meeting is about the] best way to proceed, not whether to.”
There have been rumors about a Santorum-Gingrich unity ticket before, but they always seemed highly unlikely for two reasons. The first was that Santorum would be taking a very big risk by promising Newt the VP slot, especially back when he had a chance to win the nomination cleanly and pick a more practical running mate, i.e., Marco Rubio or Paul Ryan. The second obstacle was Gingrich’s main bankroller, Sheldon Adelson, who has made it pretty clear he’s not a Santorum fan.
The difference now is that Santorum and Gingrich are both in much more dire straits than they were a month or two ago. Santorum has no chance of winning the nomination outright, and even in the highly unlikely scenario that he did, most of the names on the vice presidential short list have endorsed and campaigned for Romney.
Adelson has also said Gingrich is at the “end of his line” in the race. If the clock is running out on Adelson’s support for Gingrich, the former speaker has much less to lose by teaming up with Santorum.
Of course, if such a deal were actually to happen, Gingrich and Santorum would become the scourge of the Republican establishment (at least more so than they are already). And at this point, their chances of winning with a unity ticket aren’t much better than without a unity ticket. For someone like Santorum with future presidential aspirations, it doesn’t seem like the wisest move in the long run.
"…Sheldon Adelson, who has made it pretty clear he’s not a Santorum fan". Why? Simply because Santorum is viewed as a religious fanatic. And that view is widely held by women, Jews, non-Catholics, and many Catholics as well. He may or may not be, but he dug that hole for himself. He alone may be the root cause of the GOP losing the election in November. If the extremists at the so-called base want everything, they will undoubtedly end up getting nothing. That has been the trouble with this primary. Obama is a slam dunk for the Democrat nomination. Apparently, the outsiders in the GOP have had to cuddle up to the extremist GOP base. Not a good system for the outsiders, the GOP.
There can be no "unity ticket" now. The GOP Establishment has shown that we conservatives are of no interest to them, and they do no share our values, They have shown their opinions clearly with their demand that Romney be accepted before the voting was done. They did not like that Romney was challenged by other candidates in the Party. I won't vote for Romney based on who he is and what he has done in the past. And, although still a registered Republican, I do not respect the Party leaders anymore. I see the Republican Establishment as one with the Democrat Establishment. Both playing "good cop bad cop" to their different bases who they see as just tools to manipulate to keep power among themselves. In this election cycle we voters have seen behind the GOP curtain. I hope others will do as I will do, not be one of those the GOP Establishment say will jump on the bandwagon no matter who the Party runs against Obama. If the GOP Establishment believed in the Constitution Obama would have been stopped from running because he was not a "natural born citizen", his father was not an American citizen at the time of his birth. But we are shown how much the GOP Establishment respects and will follow the Constitution as they suggest Marco Rubio, also not a natural born citizen, for the VP spot. If we really want to get rid of Obama, then impeach him for not being eligible to be President under the Constitution. Now he could probably be impeached for his grab for power in threatening the Supreme Court, But the GOP Establishment won't act to defend the Constitution. And I won't sell out my values a second time for the GOP. I did that when I voted for McCain to stop Obama who clearly hated America. Not again. So, I say to The Establishment, forget "unity", and just go for those Independents who you value more than Conservatives who are registered Republicans.