US ELECTIONS/ Romney's Electability vs. Santorum's Authenticity

Mitt Romney will win the Republican nomination for President. That is the conventional logic. It is his turn, after losing the last election cycle to John McCain.  McCain has now endorsed Romney this election cycle. Romney has garnered major endorsements from governors and congressmen and women from all around the country.  Jon Huntsman dropping out of the race and endorsing Romney now will only help Romney consolidate more votes.  Huntsman was the highly successful Governor of Utah and 3-time ambassador.  His support will only strengthen Romney.  The Republican Party establishment seems to be in full support of him.

Romney has raised an enormous amount of money to run for President. He has a huge national organization. He has multiple Super PACs working on his behalf. Romney won a narrow victory in the Iowa Caucus and a substantial victory in the New Hampshire Primary. No non-incumbent Republican candidate had ever won both Iowa and New Hampshire. He is leading in national polls as well as leading in South Carolina where the next primary is to be held later this week on Saturday.

No Republican candidate in the modern period has won the Republican nomination without first winning South Carolina. If Romney wins there, almost everyone is convinced the Republican race is over for all the other candidates. The momentum of three straight victories is too much for anyone to overcome, especially considering Romney's national organization and campaign war chest of money which will only increase after a victory in South Carolina. So if it is a done deal, if it's inevitable that Romney will win and run against President Obama in the fall, why should we care about the Republican race? Why should we even vote?

The answer is a simple one, it's not a conventional or normal year. The old logic doesn't work this year. The rules for this year’s primary/caucus season are different. The Republican Party has changed how delegates are awarded. It is now proportional representation which means delegates are awarded by each state according the percentage of vote that they win, it is not winner-take-all. According to MSNBC's delegates count, Romney has 18 delegates. His closest competitor Santorum has 11 delegates. 1143 delegates are required to win the Republican nomination. This race is far from over.

I would remind voters that there is a recount of votes in progress right now in Iowa which could make Santorum the victor there. That would change the delegate count. Santorum has also recently pulled ahead of Gingrich in the official count of votes in the New Hampshire Primary. Santorum just earned the endorsement of 150 major Evangelical leaders in their recent meeting, on Friday 13th, in Texas. South Carolina is composed of a 60% Evangelical vote in the Republican Primary.