Rick Santorum might just be as bad at winning as Mitt Romney.
In the days following the former Pennsylvania senator’s big win in Louisiana — which his campaign touted as proof that Santorum can still woo conservatives who won’t resign themselves to Romney — Santorum took a page from his chief rival’s book and made a series of gaffes that overshadowed his primary triumph.
Monday’s campaign news cycle was all about “bullshit”-gate, a controversy over an outburst Santorum made at a New York Times reporter. Cursing at a journalist on camera ensured that the spat became the news, rather than any serious discussion of his viability as a candidate. It also gave critics an easy target for a candidate who espouses conservative family values as a cornerstone of his campaign.
And “bullshit”-gate wasn’t even the biggest gaffe Santorum made since winning the primary.
That came in a Monday in which Santorum turned in his flamethrower badge and effectively gave up his role as anti-Romney insurgent. In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Santorum said he’d be comfortable running as Romney’s running mate.
“I’ll do whatever is necessary to help our country,” Santorum said when asked if he’d consider joining a Romney ticket.
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It may not seem monumental on its face — Santorum has said before that he will support the GOP nominee in the fall, whoever it is — but unaligned Republican observers were stunned that he would even hint at Romney’s inevitability as the nominee — something practically the entire political world has suggested but the three remaining non-Romney candidates have roundly rejected.
“Rick Santorum saying he would be open to being Romney’s vice president undermines the logic of his delegate campaign,” said one GOP strategist who asked not to be identified. “To win his delegate race, he has to demonize Romney. He has now cut that path off.”
“Bullshit”-gate was all about demonizing Romney. The fight with the Times reporter came after Santorum stepped on his own amped-up rhetoric against the frontrunner, which centers mostly on the idea that a Romney win would be a disaster for the GOP against Obama thanks to Romneycare. That’s the message Santorum has used when defending his decision to stay in the race despite his own campaign’s admission that the best he can do is push the nomination race to a brokered convention by denying Romney the 1,144 delegates he needs to win outright. Jeff Zeleny, the New York Times reporter who was on the receiving end of Santorum’s outburst, had been following up on those comments when he drew Santorum’s ire.
Ford O’Connell, the GOP strategist who told TPM last week Romney needs to get a handle on his post-victory gaffes if he wants to bring the brutal primary to an end, said Santorum’s VP line makes it much harder for him to keep pushing the case that Republicans need to risk a dangerous brokered convention by supporting him.
“Saying, ‘I will support the nominee’ is the right thing to do,” he said. “But now he wants to stay relevant, and taking those whacks at Romney and then saying, ‘OK, well I’ll be a team player’ kind of undermines his whole argument.”
