2012: What will it take?

There is still a lot of feet dragging for Rick Santorum by a lot of good Catholic conservatives. Granted, early on in this race I wasn't buying into it because he didn't seem like he was running as a Catholic conservative. But, as the race has gone on, and he has hit his stride it is clear that he is an issue based candidate and that his faith defines his position on a lot of things.

Now I don't know if it was more of him trying to get comfortable in his campaign, or if I was just blinded by what I thought I knew about him. Regardless, he is the right candidate at this point. Ron Paul, I believe is a legitimate choice, except while he has some good areas, some of his faults are just as glaring as Santorum, Gingrich, or Romney. I don't think there is a perfect candidate. That being the case, I think Santorum gives us the best chance to replace Obama. Could Paul do the same if enough people got behind him? Of course. Would he be a good President? I think so. But that isn't the case right now. Sure you could say if I spent these 5 minutes promoting him, it might help, I think that if he was going to get to that point of electability it would have happened 4 years ago, or even 4 months ago. He just hasn't been able to get to that critical mass.

To this point though, no one has really been able to usurp Romney in this area. One has to wonder, "Why is Romney the front runner?" Mostly because he seemed like the most legitimate threat to Obama. He had a political machine from 2008 in place, and came out of the box running. People are so determined to beat Obama, that they were willing to "compromise" some issues to make sure we had a lesser of two evils in the Oval Office. Without getting into that type of thinking, I believe that Rick Santorum is more than that. I believe he is someone that Catholics can vote for in good conscience. But is he electable? You keep hearing that. It is the main reason Romney has been the front runner since day one.

Tipping of the Scales...

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Well, earlier this week I posted a poll that showed he was. But now we are getting more polling that shows Santorum with legitimate movement. Today at CPAC they will have their Straw Poll, and while it isn't always indicative of who is going to win, this year and in this situation it might just speak volumes if either Ron Paul (who has done well before) or Santorum wins.

So what will it take? If you aren't a Santorum supporter at this point, what would it take? Are you riding your bets on Romney because you think he has the best shot? What if the polls continue to point to Santorum? Will you believe them? Will it be enough? What about Paul supporters? Is there anyone aside from Paul you would vote for? Honestly, does he represent what you believe or have you conformed to his policies? Could you switch and vote for Santorum if he is the guy?

What will it take?

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