The Patriot Post® · It's Time to Focus on the Main Event

The media would like to drag the GOP primaries out as long as possible. For one thing, they relish Republicans trashing other Republicans. For another, they enjoy seeing the GOP squandering tens of millions of dollars that, as a result, they won’t have available when the general election rolls around.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I believe that Mitt Romney is the candidate with the best chance of defeating Obama, whom I regard as the gravest menace, foreign or domestic, that this country has ever faced. When I think of the permanent damage he could do to America if given another four years and the opportunity to possibly replace the likes of Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, my blood runs cold.

If either Santorum or Gingrich had built up a commanding lead in the primaries, I would have urged the others to drop out of the race because either of them would make a far better president than the Occupy Wall Streeter who currently occupies the Oval Office.

I would even support Ron Paul, the man who has never won a single primary even though this is his third run for the presidency. Although I regard his foreign policy as dangerously delusional, I believe Rep. Paul, unlike Obama, is a genuine patriot who sincerely wants what’s best for America.

There are those who insist that Mitt Romney would be no different from Obama. I regard such people as either being saps for believing that a so-called “Massachusetts moderate” is the same thing as a left-wing zealot or, as is far more likely, liars, who are trying to disguise their religious bigotry as nothing more than political differences. To me, the scary thing is that there are so many Republicans who see a moral equivalence between a Marxist and a Mormon.

Gingrich remains in the race for the same reason I always said he entered in the first place. He wanted to enhance his brand, thus ensuring that even years after leaving Congress, he would continue to sell books and videos and collect huge speaking fees. If he had been a serious candidate, he would not have spent the early weeks of the primary sailing around the Greek islands, leading his entire campaign team to resign. Also, if he had been serious, an old veteran of the political wars would not have found himself in the embarrassing position of not being on the ballot in his home state of Virginia.

I sincerely believe the only reason Newt is still hanging around is his hatred of Romney. After all, Romney is everything Gingrich wishes he were: tall, handsome, an exemplary father and husband and extraordinarily wealthy. In addition to jealousy, there is political animus because through an odd set of circumstances, Gingrich actually found himself perched atop the polls until Romney’s Super Pac buried him in Iowa.

Santorum is still sticking around because, unlike Gingrich, he has actually won more than two primaries, although the fact that he, too, was off the ballot in Virginia and in several Ohio counties, doesn’t speak well of his organizational skills. Still, the fact remains that as we approach the mid-point of the primary season, Romney has collected more delegates than Gingrich, Paul and Santorum, combined, and that the big ones coming up after the swing through the South – namely California, New Jersey and Illinois – all favor Romney, would suggest that for the sake of the Party, it is time to coalesce. The problem is that neither Santorum nor Gingrich holds elective office, and, so, there is no way the Party leaders can force the issue.

A good deal of the opposition to Romney comes from those who see him as the choice of the GOP establishment. The irony is that if Santorum and Gingrich somehow prevent Romney from garnering the 1,144 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination, it will lead to a brokered convention. And just who do you think will control that?

The good thing about being the standard bearer for the GOP in 2012 is that, unlike any presidential campaign in the past, the candidate won’t have to make a slew of promises he might not be able to deliver on; instead, he can earn his place on Mt. Rushmore by merely undoing what Obama has done.

As for Obama, the unfortunate thing is that he received the Nobel Peace Prize a month after he took office. In a just world, he would have received it next February, a month after he leaves.