Jenifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Washington Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective. JENNIFER RUBIN | COMMENTARY ADVERTISING If Michigan was a state that Mitt Romney had to win, because it was “in his back
JENNIFER RUBIN | COMMENTARY
If Michigan was a state that Mitt Romney had to win, because it was “in his back yard” and to prove he could win in the Rust Belt, the same is true of Rick Santorum in Ohio. A loss there would undercut his claim to be the blue-collar vote-getter.
If Santorum is smart, he’ll regroup. He won’t win the nomination talking about every social position that pops into his head, especially using terms that put off average voters. He is, after all, running for the presidency of a country home to incredibly diverse religious views. If he comes through Super Tuesday, he will need to address the controversy created by his rhetoric — but not in the brief time he has to make his case to Ohio voters.
Santorum should disregard all the piffle suggesting that Michigan showed Romney to be weak. It demonstrated Romney’s resilience and ability to shift gears — from biography to agenda — that many thought he didn’t have. Whatever his money problems and whatever temptations lie beyond Ohio, Santorum needs to spend the lion’s share of his time there, making his case on economic grounds.
Santorum might consider the utility of Romneycare. There is not a primary voter in the country who doesn’t know Romney pioneered a plan that took the individual mandate out of think tanks and into public policy. But is this the issue on which Santorum is going to win? It hasn’t sunk Romney yet.
Rather than retread the tired argument that his record is more conservative than Romney’s (a dubious proposition), Santorum might get more traction by showing that his views are bolder and more effective and have more appeal. Santorum should make himself the candidate of conservative reform. He says he can balance the budget in five years? Tell us how. Public schools are a mess? Tell us what he’d do to change that. He thinks Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan is too timid? Explain in detail his own proposals and make the case that current retirees should contribute something to solving our debt. Rather than arguing about the past, he should argue he is the boldest reformer.
This approach would appeal to upscale fiscal conservatives (who have been put off by his manufacturing-tax gambit) and to those Rust Belt voters who want the debt gone, schools improved and economic vitality restored.
Jenifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Washington Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.
