Watching this week’s Super Tuesday post-mortem, and tracking the narrative in the days since, it’s a little hard to sort out what might be in these politicians’ minds.<\/p>\n
Mitt Romney has clearly racked up a daunting pile of the delegates he needs to seize the nomination.\u00a0 It’s hard to imagine anyone else catching up at this point.<\/p>\n
This narrative has begun to lock in, from conservative websites to punditry in the mainstream media:\u00a0 Romney won ugly, and hurt himself badly along the way, but he really seems to have won.<\/p>\n
So why are the other players hanging around?\u00a0 Put simply, they’re fighting for the future.<\/p>\n
Conservatives have always been comfortable with the long game. And a growing number of right-leaning thinkers are already looking past this election, beyond Mitt Romney and even beyond Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
And in their hearts, I’m guessing that they’re okay with that.<\/p>\n
The dominant philosophy on the far right has long held that a Democrat in the White House isn’t nearly as bad for their movement as a moderate Republican in the White House.<\/p>\n
So if this isn’t really about 2012, what’s really at stake is the leadership and texture of the Republican Party.<\/p>\n
Ron Paul is out there making a case that libertarianism really deserves a place at the table within the modern GOP.\u00a0 He’s building the grassroots network that could actually take his son, Rand Paul, beyond the political fringe.<\/p>\n
Then there’s Rick Santorum, who is laying a solid foundation now for 2016.<\/p>\n
Half a year ago, Santorum was literally a nobody, a former Senator who got smoked in his last election, a guy who was eking out a living in the gray world of Washington lobbyists and think tanks.<\/p>\n
Now he’s a legitimate contender, a man who has used this campaign to reinvent himself, building one of the best brands in modern Republican politics.<\/p>\n
Over the next couple of weeks, Santorum could well pick up more wins in important Republican states like Kansas and Alabama.<\/p>\n
Which could well leave Rick Santorum as the guy “next in line” for the GOP nomination.<\/p>\n
That won’t be an entirely easy argument to make, of course.\u00a0 Santorum would likely face a crowded GOP field four years from now, with prominent figures like Chris Christy, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush sure to at least consider a run.<\/p>\n
So Santorum has to move fast now.\u00a0 He’s scrambling to sink roots roots in important battleground states across the US.<\/p>\n
He’s proving to his donors and volunteers that even with an underfunded, johnny-come-lately style campaign he has a message that can mobilize the conservative base.<\/p>\n
Which means that there’s a logical reason for this primary battle to go on and on.<\/p>\n
Even as Romney looks more and more like the obvious Republican candidate for 2012, Rick Santorum will keep at it, leveraging this campaign as the long, necessary prologue to 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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