Sarah Palin has made it crystal clear that, solely for the purpose of having the existing candidates fully vetted and their positions, economic and social fully discussed, the GOP campaign should continue until that has been accomplished.
To that end Palin asked that the voters in South Carolina vote for Newt Gingrich instead of Mitt Romney-then the campaign leader, as a Gingrich win would ensure the campaign continued on instead of becoming a Romney coronation. She added that were she a voter in South Carolina that was exactly what she would do.
As things turned out not only did the voters of South Carolina heed her message, but they gave Newt a landslide win. Palin then made the same request to the voters of Florida. However, possibly partly because there was no concern that a Romney win there would necessarily end the campaign after South Carolina, Mitt won comfortably.
Enter Rick Santorum and his suprise three state wins subsequently, which has brought the balance back in favor of an extended campaign which a Romney win in those three states might have ended after his, subsequent to Florida, win in Nevada.
Santorum quickly became the latest non-Romney and, like Gingrich before him jumped into a commanding lead over Romney,especially in Romney's "home state" of Michigan. the Romney forces have taken a two pronged attack to counter this threat.
Firstly they have advised that "Michigan is not all that vital" to their go forwards efforts, which of course it is as if Romney loses on home ground and gets slaughtered in Ohio, where he is running way behind Santorum, then his campaign is in very serious trouble.
Secondly the Romney team have launched a mass money "Ginrichization' media blitz against Santorum in Michigan which has seen Santorum's initial huge lead drop straight back to only a few points.
It is at this point that an endorsement of Santorum, along the same lines she did for Gingrich in South Carolina, may be the key to countering Romney's vast financial resources.
If she endorsed Santorum "only for Michigan to ensure the campaign keeps going for the best interests of the GOP, it might be enough to ensure Santorum wins and doesn't blunt his advantage in Ohio. Palin would have no problem endorsing Santorum as she has made very postive statements about him. Santorum has used these to siognifcant advantage during his campaigns as well.
A Romney win might lead to a further massive financial blitz in Ohio, and with those two key states under his belt he might be unstoppable.
Two Santorum wins would not necessarily mean he was unstoppable because Georgia is coming up for Gingrich, which has a substantial amount of delegates in play. If the three contenders continue to garner proportional wins i.e. don't get over 50% in those states that give all their delegates to winners who do, then there is every prospect of the campaign continuing on well past Super Tuesday-even up till Tampa. ,
If the end result is that nobody has enough delegates to win on the first ballot, then the subsequent shifting of alliances when delegates are released, may give a truer indication of whom the rank and file wish to be the nominee.
None of these scenarios can happen if Romney blitzes through the next lot of major states-an endorsement of Santorum by Palin for Michigan and Ohio, and then Gingrich for Georgia could ensure the best interests of the voters are achieved.
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