A key reason Mitt Romney is headed for victory in South Carolina on Saturday, and then on to win the Republican nomination, is that the voters opposed to Romney are divided between three candidates: Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and to a lesser degree, Rick Perry.
RedState’s Erick Erickson has a plan to stop this. On Wednesday, he wrote a piece urging Perry to drop out and endorse Newt Gingrich. Erickson has a two-part argument. First, Perry could help conservatives unite around an anti-Romney; second, Perry could save face and act as a “king maker” rather than return to Texas entirely defeated. It’s a piece Erickson hopes Perry will read and think about.
-->Huntsman has already done his part to help Romney. Perry’s endorsement today or tomorrow morning could offset that, shifting undecideds and Perry’s own voters to someone else and get them a leg up on Mitt Romney. With Newt Gingrich surging according to the latest Rasmussen poll and Sarah Palin saying she’d support him, Perry’s withdrawal and endorsement before Saturday could ensure a Gingrich win.
Rick Perry’s campaign has come to an end. But he could leave on an unexpected high note — helping conservatives unite around one not-Romney in a way no one else has been able to. Rick Perry could be the catalyst and kingmaker so many have been looking for, even as other conservatives have stood by, unwilling to endorse in the face of long odds…
Either Rick Perry will leave the race Sunday with no political capital and no deposit of goodwill an endorsement would bring, or he will choose to strike one final blow for limited government conservatism.
