If the Republican nominating contest were truly over, would Rick Santorum be cruising towards a big victory in Louisiana this Saturday? The truth is that Mitt Romney hasn’t wrapped anything up, but the cable networks don’t think there is any more money to be made by covering the primaries. Howard Kurtz puts it this way:
Television, in short, has pretty much decided the race is over, Mitt Romney has won, the thing is boring everyone to death, and it’s time, at least for now, to move on. The campaign is occupying less front-page real estate in the major papers as well.
What happened?
The end of the debates is a major factor. They were produced by the networks and functioned as a kind of continuous reality show, from Rick Perry’s “oops” moment to Newt Gingrich beating up on John King. Now they’re history.
Romney’s delegate lead has also drained the contest of drama. At this point, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich can only stop him from reaching the magic 1,144, not win the nomination themselves. And while it’s possible we’re heading for a brokered convention in August, the chatter about that possibility is an insider’s conversation, fascinating mainly to the junkies.
It’s ironic that the media has decided the contest is over because it is no longer lucrative. The reality is a little different. Rick Santorum never expected to get so much traction and he didn’t plan for being competitive this late in the race. The Pennsylvania newspapers are mocking Santorum for his lack of preparation, reporting that even if he wins his home state next month that he will not receive the majority of its delegates. He had similar problems in Ohio and Illinois, and he wasn’t even on the ballot in Virginia.
These failings are making it highly likely that Romney will get the majority of the delegates even if he loses many of the remaining contests. But that doesn’t mean that Romney would win the nomination in a balanced fight.
The story of these primaries has been about how Romney could not persevere against joke candidates like Hermann Cain, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich. But the truth is that he couldn’t not persevere. He was the only one with the money and organization to compete in 50 states. Rick Perry might have given him a run for his money, but he turned out to be a complete simpleton. This hasn’t been a true contest; it’s been a dishonest show. From the falsely reported Romney win in Iowa to the gaming of the caucuses in Maine to the uncontested race in Virginia to the lack of delegates for Santorum in Ohio and Illinois, the people’s choices have not been tabulated correctly or honored.
And, in spite of all this rigging of the system, Romney still hasn’t wrapped this thing up mathematically. If the media wants something interesting to report, they should report on how the Republican establishment has been playing their base for fools with a fake reality show.
