These are biased discussions which fuel an artificial fire. I firmly believe the media is artificially inflating expectations for only one candidate--Mitt Romney.
Momentum is on Mitt Romney's side. He has consecutively won the last 5 contests--five contests in five very crucial states. His lead is more than double that of his rivals in the delegate count--Romney 203, Santorum 92, Gingrich 33, Paul 25. (Click New York Times article for full break down of delegate count).
The last contest Santorum won was on February 7th, the night of his surprising 3-state sweep in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota. The irony? Those contests were non-binding. The delegates from those "crucial wins" have yet to be allocated.
Santorum continues to finish in 2nd or 3rd place. He hasn't been able to benefit from his surge and his lead in the polls has evaporated. He hasn't attracted anyone but the ultra conservative voters and has even the lost support of his fellow Catholics.
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| Eric Gay/AP Photo |
In just a matter of days, Santorum has retracted countless statements including calling Obama a "snob" for wanting Americans to go to college, apologizing for voting against his principles by "taking one for the team," as well as his controversial statement about "wanting to throw" up over JFK's famous speech about the separation of church and state.
In the past 30 days, Rick Santorum has demonstrated that he is an extremely polarizing politician. He has been ineffective in demonstrating an ability to show controlled restraint of his opinions and has therefore, been forced to clean up countless sloppy comments--comments that I believe have hurt the conservative cause.
All of this and yet, the burden continues to be on Mitt Romney and whether he can survive a win in Ohio? Please.
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The media is fueling an artificial fire.
This past week we were incessantly reminded of the importance of Mitt Romney winning his birth state of Michigan. Critics were sure a loss would mark the end of his candidacy. Apparently, it was "do-or-die" for him to win the support of people in a state where he lived 40 years ago.
Does this same burden apply to Rick Santorum? Believe it or not, he also has a "home state." He was born in Virginia. He owns a 2nd home in Great Falls, Virginia and yet, he is not going to win the Virginia primary today--Mitt Romney is going to win Virginia. (Oops, Santorum's campaign wasn't organized enough to even get his name on the ballot).
So, is winning a home state really the "do-or-die" test for a candidate? Of course not, but the media has artificially inflated the importance of it for only Mitt Romney.
Unfair. Biased. Inexcusable.
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| Justin Sullivan/Getty Images |
Today marks a crucial day in the election cycle. Another crucial day in the step towards choosing whom will face President Obama. A crucial day in the step towards choosing who will be granted the responsibility and duty to lead this country out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
I am confident that the voters will see beyond the rhetoric and beyond the artificially inflated expectations placed on only one individual. I am hopeful that again the voters will recognize that Mitt Romney is the one candidate with the right experience who has emerged at just the right time.
Go Mitt!
Way good point, the media seems to be doing all it can to negatively portray Mitt Romney. If he had said or done any of the extreme things that Santorum has done lately, his campaign would have been considered 'dead' by now by the media, but the same doesn't seem to be the case for Rick Santorum. The media seems to be the source of this drawn out GOP primary as they have down-played the erratic behavior of Santorum while holding Romney to a different standard and twisting his efforts to run a successful campaign.
ReplyDeleteWell said Corm. Thanks for joining the conversation and offering your perspective. I think you are right, if Romney had made as many controversial statements as Santorum has in the past 7 days, he would be run out of not only the race, but possibly out of the GOP. Such hypocrisy.
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