Republican presidential nomination: Provocative Rick Santorum risks being pushed out of race

RICK Santorum’s US presidential race may be over. In a week in which one of the remaining Republican contenders’ campaign often seemed focused on issues like abortion and religion, the grassroots Republican Party’s establishment is putting its foot down.

Santorum, battling Mitt Romney in what polls say is a tight race in this Tuesday’s crucial primary in Michigan, sought to tilt the narrative of his campaign toward jobs and the economy on Friday evening with a speech in Lincoln Park, Michigan.

Earlier, however, there were signs Santorum’s actions last week – his provocative statements against abortion and contraception, his claim that Satan is attacking America and his lacklustre debate performance in Arizona on Wednesday – had given some leading Republicans new ammunition in their behind-the-scenes push to see his campaign defeated. Two opinion pieces on Friday in the Wall Street Journal – whose editorial page is typically a barometer of the thinking of the Republican Party establishment – blasted Santorum’s brand of conservatism.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

One article said the former Pennsylvania senator’s focus on religion and social issues could make it more difficult for the eventual Republican nominee to appeal to independent voters, the key to victory in the 6 November election.

Another article said Santorum has “potentially fatal general election liability issues,” and that his social policies –which, among other things, seek to end abortion and increase childbirth – would increase the role of government in Americans’ lives. One of the key tenets of the Republican platform is to reduce government’s influence on citizens.

“Voters will wonder what other values he’d seek to institute via government,” columnist Kimberly A Strassel wrote in that article. Santorum’s campaign did not comment on either article.

However, Santorum said last week in Ohio when questioned about his personal views against contraception that it is absurd to think that “I’m going to be the uber-tsar [who is] going to try to impose that on the rest of the country”.

Republican strategists acknowledge many in the party’s establishment view Romney as the only one of the four remaining Republican contenders (Romney, Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul) who could defeat Obama in November, and are hoping for a Romney victory in Michigan.

“This 2012 general election is going to be an economy election,” said Steve Schmidt, who managed Arizona senator John McCain’s unsuccessful run for president in 2008.

“The reality of politics is that if your candidate and you talk about Satan and the dangers of contraception and pre-natal testing – all of those issues make it impossible to communicate a message about reforming government [and] controlling spending.

However, Romney has had his own awkward moments throughout the primary season.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

His campaign produced a couple more on Friday during his speech before the Detroit Economic Club at Ford Field, the 65,000-seat home of the National Football League’s Detroit Lions when he spoke to an eerily empty stadium.