Romney is doomed (part 24) Romney delegate (OHIO AG) switches to Santorum.

[grantcart]

For the last 4 months I have been explaining why the Evangelical wing could not accept Mitt Romney. He entered with two strikes out because of Mormon/Evangelical antipathy and then the third strike is, well, he is Mitt Romney.

Now the rats have begun to jump the ship. Contrary to what some people think Romney doesn't really have very good ties to the Republican establishment. He didn't spend the last four years with Seamus strapped to the top of his car going from district to district helping to raise money for Congressional candidates. Moreover people don't like him very well, including establishment people. According to DemocraticConventionWatch.com he has garnered only 18 superdelegate endorsements.

http://www.democraticconventionwatch.com/diary/4726/republican-superdelegate-endorsement-list


Now it appears even the few that hitched their wagon to Romney are starting to abandon him.

Ohio AG DeWine switches from Romney to Santorum

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine switched his endorsement from Mitt Romney to Rick Santorum on Friday in a defection he said was driven by his belief the former Pennsylvania senator can win the Republican presidential race.

DeWine, a former senator who led John McCain’s Ohio presidential campaign in 2008, made the announcement in the company of Santorum at the Statehouse. He said he once felt Santorum could not overcome Romney’s financial advantage but has decided he was wrong.

“To be elected president, you have to do more than tear down your opponents,’’ DeWine said. “You have to give the American people a reason to vote for you, a reason to hope, a reason to believe that under your leadership, America will be better. Rick Santorum has done that. Sadly, Governor Romney has not.’’

. . .

Ohio Democrats, through their spokesman Seth Bringman, issued a terse statement in response to DeWine’s decision: “As is true for countless Ohioans, the more Mike DeWine learned about Mitt Romney, the less he liked.’’

Here is the video of the event. In this short clip you see how pissed people are at Romney, more emotion than any pro Romney event.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2012/02/17/dewine-santorum-endorsement.wcmh

Even if Romney eeks out a victory in Michigan it will be to no avail. It will be a pyrrhic victory. To have to spend a huge amount of money to win your home state, and a state that is best suited to your demographics just exposes how weak your support is.

[sofa king]

1. I want to thank you, grantcart.

You've been all over this and you are among my favorite journal-keepers because of your astute observations.

Thank you for all of your hard work. And I will further note that it's still all unfolding more or less exactly as you guessed.

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. +1

[grantcart]

8. thanks for your kind words

[DCBob]

3. Wow, thats gotta hurt the Rmoney folks, however..

I think a Michigan victory does matter.. plus a win in Arizona. It will give him a bump. That always happens. The question is whether Willard can keep from stepping in it as he aways seems to do. Also, I am wondering what impact this birth control stuff will have on Santorum. Surely he will take a hit. I will be curious to see recent polling done during past couple of days. I suspect Santorum's numbers will be down a bit.

[K Gardner]

6. Santorum's numbers will be up, I predict. The base is all Evangelical, and they

don't care about birth control. I would imagine, even GOP women polled, won't admit it if they're offended by Santorum's Back to the Dark Ages mentality. As long as he is bashing liberals and Obama, they don't care.

[morningfog]

4. Romney insulted Ohio when he said Michigan's trees were just the right height.

This is more delicious news, and good to see the AG act before the Ohio primary.

One thing is for sure. Even if Romney does get the nomination, he has a huge likability problem within and without the gop.

[denem]

5. Nah, Ohio doesn't care about Buckeyes.

[jonthebru]

7. Rmoney has been making an attempt

to buy the Presidency Of The United States. He has paid for endorsements by other elected Repubthugs and used the PAC funding to negatively attack his opponents.
The American People are not stupid and it looks like even the low information repubthug voter is gettin' it.
The best part is imagining him yelling and tearing his hair out over the dismal poll numbers.
We as Americans may be forgiving, but when its so frickin' obvious that the guys only asset is wealth gained by cheating, intimidating, selfishness greed they walk away, quickly.
Besides he is made of cardboard.