Now, the party cannot avoid a wrenching and perhaps lengthy nomination fight. It can cast its lot with the establishment’s cool embodiment of competence, forged in corporate board rooms, or with the anger-venting champion of in-your-face conservatism and grandiose ideas.
It’s soul-searching time for Republicans. It might not be pretty.
Romney still might win the nomination, of course. He carries several advantages into Florida and beyond, and party insiders still consider him the frontrunner. And it’s conceivable that former Sen. Rick Santorum can battle back and take the anti-Romney title from Gingrich. After all, he bested Gingrich in Iowa and New Hampshire.
But Santorum’s lackluster finish in South Carolina will doubtlessly prompt some conservative leaders to urge him to step aside and back Gingrich, as Rick Perry did Thursday.
Even if Santorum revives his campaign in Florida, the fundamental intra-party debate will be the same. Voters associate Gingrich and Santorum with social issues such as abortion, and with unyielding fealty to conservative ideals. That’s in contrast to Romney’s flexibility and past embraces of legalized abortion, gun control and gay rights.
Rep. Ron Paul will stay in the race, but he factors only tangentially in such discussions. His fans are largely a mix of libertarians, isolationists and pacifists, many of whom will abandon the GOP nominee if it’s not the Texas congressman.
Strategically, Romney maintains a big edge in money and organization. He faces a dilemma, however. Gingrich resuscitated his struggling campaign in this state with combative debate performances featuring near-contempt for Obama and the news media. Romney likely would love to choke off that supply by drastically reducing the number of debates.
Ducking Gingrich after losing to him in South Carolina would suggest panic or fear, however, and all four candidates are scheduled to debate Monday in Florida.
