Rightardia thought it was peculiar that Rick Santorum, who ran a lack luster campaign, is beating out Michele Bachmann for the evangelical vote. Santorum surged to 10 per cent in the IA caucus, which was great for someone who had been a 2 per cent.
Bachmann has a better speaking voice and was a lot feistier in the debates than Santorum, yet Santorum prevailed. Perhaps the call to Sarah Palin helped him.
Palin and Bachmann had been bosom buddies, but apparently the two had a falling out in August. Palin believed
Bachmann's team has gone around Iowa saying Palin is a lightweight and a quitter .
Well, that is certainly true. Democrats have been well aware of Palin's limitations,
Bachmann asked Ed Rollins to apologize to Palin. Rollins quit as her campaign manager.
Then this!
Bachmann's Iowa Chairman Kent Sorenson abandoned Bachmann for Ron Paul. Sorenson suddenly quit the Bachmann campaign and endorsed Ron Paul.
Was the Republican good old boy network to blame? Sure, but the campaigners also realized that it is probably be the end for Bachmann in IA. However, it should have also have been the end for the Rick Santorum, too.
Of course, Bachmann like Palin has trouble keeping staff around. Perhaps both are overbearing and narcissistic. Palin has certainly been accused of the latter. But the GOP is also a good old boy club that has little regard for female candidates.
It will be interesting to watch who stays in the campaign.
There are some indicators that the party bosses would prefer a primary stalemate in which none of the candidates have sufficient votes for the GOP nomination. This would cause a brokered convention in which the country club Republicans picked the party's nominee: probably Jeb Bush or Chris Christie.
This scenario is likely if Ron Paul starts winning most of the primaries. It will be interesting to see how many candidates are left after the next three or four primaries and caucuses.
If a bunch are left, the fix is in for a brokered convention. If candidates start dropping, the GOP is confident that Mitt will win enough delegates to get the nomination.
graphic: Mario Piperni
