Political Sanatorium

The GOP may have the cure for what ails them, or perhaps they’re finally coming to terms with the nominee they most certainly have now.

For a long time, a nutritious red-meat diet of political rhetoric kept the base healthy, even as the real ailment still hasn’t been cured, but tucked away from sight.

So when former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum suspends his campaign, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sees his campaign funds dry up, and President Obama’s re-election campaign begin ads to destroy former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney…

The sanatorium approach ends with a whimper.  After a few months of good nutrition, rest, and sunshine, the GOP finds itself in the same mess it started with, the same malaise that is now terminal.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul can’t muster delegates to stave off future delegate counts. Superdelegates are already going to Mitt, so the first thing a rightful heir to the White House needs is an endorsement from the party competitors, those who shared the spotlight, and mathematically, the true majority of their base.

But Santorum didn’t endorse Romney.  Newt would rather fly to the Moon than endorse.  Ron Paul’s still out there.  Mitt even had to compliment his opponents as they remained silent at the time when they should have spoken up for their nominee.

For the party, already with hints of chaos all around them, the time for conservative unification was supposed to be the day of Rick Santorum’s speech.  Instead, no shift in energy or focus, especially when Rick handed Romney the GOP’s golden ticket.  Santorum’s whipping of Mitt across the Midwest was profound, and all of those negative ads, attack speeches, and simple animosity won’t help in the general without a reconciliation to choose and defend the party, not the person.

Had Santorum capitulated, endorsing Romney as the conservative choice, he would’ve sacrificed hard-earned capital he had across the Midwest.  Speaking from a 2016 perspective, the decision to suspend his campaign sounded more like abandoning the 2012, and that’s a dangerous thought this early.

After all, if your party expects a 2012 victory, 2016 is moot.  An incumbent always clears re-election the day they win.  And with as many candidates in the wings waiting for President Obama’s term-limit, it’s pretty obvious the race is for next cycle, not this one.

So where does that leave Team Romney?  After all, they’re still viable, they now have the full attention of all of the SuperPACs and their money, and this could be the largest ad war of our generation, both in volume and per-capita expenditure.

And the real questions have yet to be answered, nor will they be answered.  After all, the primary is over.  So you can’t criticize Mitt Romney anymore.

Ever again.

Talk about a horsepill from the GOP.

Mako out.