COMMENTARY | The strong turnout at the Iowa caucus for former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum only delayed what many have predicted since the 2012 GOP presidential campaign began -- Mitt Romney would be the eventual nominee.
His victory in the Iowa caucus -- albeit by only eight votes, according to CNN, all but solidified it. But Iowans reflected that contrariness being shown by the average Republican voter throughout the country -- the anybody-but-Romney sentiment that has kept the former Massachusetts governor's national poll numbers as tracked by Real Clear Politics hovering around 20 percent throughout the campaign.
But Santorum's rise won't last and most Republicans know it. Romney will be the GOP's nominee for president in August simply because he stands the best chance at defeating President Barack Obama in a head-to-head matchup.
Although attacked as a flip-flopper and distrusted as the man who supported the Massachusetts health care legislation on which the much-hated -- by conservatives -- Affordable Health Care Act was modeled, Romney stands as the Republicans' best chance at garnering the all-important swing vote among the millions of independent voters in America and winning the presidency.
But Iowa let Republicans down. Santorum should never have gotten above single-digit support to compete with Romney. He doesn't have the political experience. His stances on many social and foreign policy issues are viewed as too extreme. And although his religious views are part of his appeal, they are also part of the reason some will not vote for him (eerily similar too Rep. Michele Bachmann's extreme views).
He rose simply because he was the last-gasp candidate that wasn't a Mormon (read: Jon Huntsman) that evangelicals had at their disposal to show their unwillingness to elect Romney, having already gone through all the other Republican candidates and found them wanting.
And as soon as the media and the oppositional researchers for other candidates get through vetting Santorum in the coming weeks, he, too, will fall by the wayside. Republicans, whether evangelical conservatives like it or not, will either select Romney as the 2012 nominee or face certain defeat in November.
But the Iowa caucus did narrow the field. Bachmann suspended her campaign early this morning following a sixth-place finish. Still, Iowa prolonged the selection process agony by offering up something unsubstantive -- false hope.
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