For years, we have watched in dismay as President Obama has adopted false right-wing talking points (We have to cut government spending in a recession just a like a family does), continued and even extended Republican civil liberties abuses (even the Cheney administration didn't openly assassinate an American citizen without any due process) and moved some of his policies ever-rightward as the Republicans moved the goal posts in the middle of negotiations (Health care reform, tax cuts).
None of this would have happened if the Republicans weren't sprinting hard to the right over the last 3 years. By taking ever-more extreme positions, they encouraged President Obama to adopt some pretty terrible Republican ideas for the sake of "finding common ground." Remember how the public option was polling at about 60% when Obama abandoned it?
They have shown they can move Obama's positions to the right. Over that same period of time, how successful have progressives been in encouraging Obama to move left? Not very. Most of the leftward-leaning members of his cabinet are gone now. When a compromise toward the right isn't as bad as some trial balloons said it might be, we cheer, just like the Japanese were encouraged to do in WWII when the Japanese "victories" they were hearing about on the radio kept getting closer and closer to home.
Thank goodness the Occupy movement has shifted the mainstream media debate, and President Obama's framing along with it. A Romney candidacy would add to that momentum. Romney's biggest weakness is that he's clearly in the 1%, funded by the 1%, and cares nothing about the 99%. The Obama campaign has already shown they're ready and willing to exploit that weakness, and push forward progressive values in the process. But where would the Obama campaign go if Santorum is the nominee? Right for the "middle ground" halfway between the center and batshit crazy.
So when I look at the Republian primaries, the first question I ask, is how will each candidate shape the debate? What will the campaigns be arguing about? Right now, all the Republican candidates have pretty much the same positions on the issues, even as each candidate is a kind of stereotype for a particular sub-group of Republicans. But when the primaries are done, who is going to move left the most? Who might attack Obama on his left flank on an issue or two? Not Santorum. But if history is any guide, Romney will do what he can to take as much of the middle ground as he can. He's far more likely to admit that climate change is real, shifting the debate to what to do about it. Not that he will, but he might. Santorum won't. Obama would argue about abortion policy with Romney, but he'll be arguing about contraceptive policy with Santorum. That's not a win for us, no matter who wins that contest.
If there's any lesson we should have learned over the last 3 years, it's that the Republican position has more influence over Obama's positions than anything we can say or do. So it's crazy to encourage or outright help Santorum to beat Romney, or to drag the Republican primaries any longer than they have to be, casting Romney's feet into conservative concrete shoes. We want Romney to be light on his feet and ready to jump left as soon as this Republican primary craziness is over. We want Romney to start pushing the debate, and Obama, back to more rational ground.