The Santorum Mirage Finally Disappears

I know that sounds a little mean spirited - but what the heck, so is Rick Santorum.  It's finally happened.  Rick Santorum ended his no-shot campaign for the GOP nomination clearing the way for the best prepared candidate in the field to head into the convention with most of the party united behind him.  So why am I still harping on him?  The answer is simple, Rick Santorum's campaign was a mirage.  To a person, if you spoke to pundits and political professionals on both sides of the aisle (even social conservatives) they would tell you the same thing today that they would have said the day he announced - he had no chance to beat Obama.  So why have we been subjected to sweater vests and comments about birth control, pornography and other misplaced rhetoric for the last four months?  Two reasons.

First, there needed to be a story.  Liberals in the media, aided by more conservative voices wanted to give life to Santorum.  The left wanted to give him air time to try and link Republicans with Rick's far right views on a host of issues.  The right wanted to try and expose Romney as a fraud and someone not to be trusted carrying the conservative banner.  Think about how many press reports over the last few months have been written about Santorum's shoestring campaign that never mentioned why he is a former senator.  During the supposed height of Santorum's surge, I could read a dozen articles a day on the campaign and never read that Santorum lost reelection in 2006 in his home state of Pennsyvania by more than 18 points.  Do you know how hard it is to lose as an incumbent by 18 points??  You basically have to shoot someone on live television while snorting cocaine. 

This is a key piece of information that particularly conservative voters chose to overlook during the primary campaign.  It never occurred to them that he might not evern be able to win his own home state.

Second, there was the envangelical leadership pushing him in part because a select group of leaders, who don't represent the bulk of social conservative or evangelical GOP voters, just couldn't wrap their arms around a Mormon.  This might be a controversial opinion, but it can be the only explanation for a group of well-heeled political players to back - a pro-lifer to be sure - but a big government conservative with a liberal fiscal record who would have little chance of beating the president. 

In the end, Rick Santorum's campaign was a testament not to the power of his ideas or the strength of his record, but rather the power of the media and certain influencers in GOP politics.  From driving around Iowa with one staffer in a pickup to the press conference today, Santorum was the beneficiary of the misfortune of others and the generosity of an elite few who sought to extend this race long after it should have been over.  Little money, radical views, no record, no organization, no real coalition of voters, the Santorum mirage has finally disappeared.