Romney’s Republican Primary Dilemma

Romney needs religious conservatives and tea partiers for his campaign against Barack Obama.

America’s next president certainly won’t be named Rick Santorum. The lanky ex-senator from Pennsylvania doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance of winning the Republican nomination. He lacks the money, organization and broad political message he would need in order to make trouble for the favorite, Mitt Romney.

Romney actually came one step closer to victory with Santorum’s three wins in three states: If the right wing of the Republican Party can’t decide between Newt Gingrich and Santorum, there’s no man left to stand against Romney.

Nonetheless, the outcomes in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado are bad news for him. They showed that religious conservatives and the tea party movement still don’t trust the party establishment’s choice. While they can’t endanger Romney’s nomination, he still needs those people in his battle against Barack Obama in November – first as a political base and then as volunteers willing to go door-to-door to get the vote out in swing states.

Romney will have to court those supporters right down to the wire just as John McCain did in 2008 when he chose arch-conservative Sarah Palin as his running mate. That cost him support among moderate voters and ultimately a victory against Obama. Romney is faced with the same dilemma.