A stopped clock is right twice a day, which compares favorably to Rick Santorum, but it's hard to argue with
his criticism of Mitt Romney:
"It really has to do with what your principles and your core is," Santorum said. "I have a core. I'm someone who has really strong convictions about the limited role of government, about the importance of having a strong defense, you know, lowering taxes and getting regulation down. That's a sharp contrast with Mitt Romney, who is for Romneycare, the blueprint for Obamacare, advocated for Romneycare, advocated for mandates at the federal level. This is someone who doesn't have a core. He's been on both sides of almost every single issue in the past ten years."
Santorum made those comments yesterday on CBS, but even as he stepped up his attack on Mitt Romney, he was losing yet another chunk of delegates in Puerto Rico, where he got crushed by Mitt Romney in a low-turnout election.
Santorum's defeat came despite having campaigned on the island last weekend, raising questions about his campaign's judgment with Tuesday's Illinois primary looming. Santorum is trying to spin his Puerto Rico defeat into a Mitt Romney negative, saying Romney only won because he flip-flopped on whether English should be the official language, but that's just seems like an after-the-fact attempt at rationalization.
Meanwhile, things don't look good for Santorum in Illinois: according to PPP's latest numbers, Santorum will be crushed by Romney by double-digits. Assuming he's beaten badly in Illinois, Santorum will be in desperate need of a string of wins to avoid being written off, but with just four contests (Louisiana, Wisconsin, Maryland, and D.C.) coming up between tomorrow's primary in Illinois and April 24, he doesn't have much to work with. And given that Santorum isn't even on the ballot in D.C., he's got quite a challenge ahead of him.
To stay relevant, Santorum needs to demonstrate that he (along with Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich) can win enough delegates to deny Mitt Romney the ability to win the nomination outright from primaries alone, a scenario which would either force Romney to either make a deal to get the delegates he needs or result in a contested convention. Santorum says he believes the chances of a contested convention are an "increase," but given that he needs to at least hold Romney at less than 48 percent of the remaining delegates for that scenario to materialize, Santorum can't afford lopsided defeats like Puerto Rico and what is likely to transpire in Illinois.
Santorum doesn't have anywhere near the financial resources of Mitt Romney, who is outspending him by a 7:1 margin in Illinois and whose total spending has far exceeded $100 million, but even though Romney might owe his ability to compete to his financial resources, that doesn't do Santorum any good. At this point, his only hope is that he can put together a message that will defeat Romney—and that he can get his message out without relying on paid media. The best way to do that is to throw rhetorical bombs, and that's exactly what we're seeing. It probably won't work, but at this point, it's the only thing Santorum has got.