Who says Mitt Romney isn’t exciting? He’s making the Republican presidential campaign really exciting.
Every time he seems within reach of locking down his gains and retaking
his place as the inevitable nominee, his campaign hits a rocky patch.
Romney won the Ohio primary by a prosciutto-thin margin, given that
he out spent his rival Rick Santorum by 4-to-1. The victory in the most
coveted Super Tuesday contest was the story of disaster narrowly
averted. Santorum could tell a story of defying the odds and marvel at
how far he’d come. He won three of the 10 races—with victories in
Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Tennessee—and nearly claimed the big prize
with a campaign operation held together by bailing wire and sturdy
boards found at the roadside.
The Republican presidential campaign is now a battle between a
movement and mathematics. Santorum has the energy and support of the
noisy part of the party—the Tea Party stalwarts and evangelicals for
whom conviction and shared values are everything. Romney’s ugly win in
Ohio only continues to raise doubts about the soundness of his
enterprise: Is he only ahead, eking out these victories, because he has
an enormous advantage in money and organization, two things he won’t
have against Barack Obama?
