Romney had spent over 3 million on tv ads before any other candidate had even started. This was a rare cycle, in which so much money was spent early it was turning people off. Santorum’s realized this, using his mudslinging Romney add diffusing some of the criticism. Romney’s been brutal in the marketing race, outspending everyone while his main competition, Santorum, has spent the least of the 4 remaining frontrunners. Unfortunately for him, he finds that he quickly strikes a saturation point at which, no matter how much money you dump into Roger Ailes’ lap, you can’t buy more votes.
Santorum has made up much of the deficit with sheer hustle, but is burying himself in a highlight reel of voter-costing YouTube videos. For starters, he told a Puerto Rican audience that federal law required them to learn English to become a state, currently a hot issue. This 1) was completely wrong, and 2) sounded like he was telling a group of Spanish speakers to “learn English.” He followed this up with being introduced by a rabid preacher, telling Muslims, Jews and Buddhists to leave the country because Americans don’t pray that way. This was him being confronted with how a large portion of how his party actually feels, and he tried valiantly yet vainly to distance himself. There’s also his quote on college being for snobs, and all the social issues he can be lured into making alienating comments on.
Romney’s real problem with Santorum is that he plays the Anti-Romney so well. Romney is paying for tons of attack ads, which Santorum diffuses with an ad of Romney firing mud at him and the gun backfiring. Romney pays for a top grade campaign, while Santorum does it with church group volunteers.
The RNC is kicking itself right now: under the old rules, this contest would have been over, but with the delegates being split and Superpacs keeping zombie campaigns like Gingrich’s going, they’re watching the party cannibalize itself. Chris Christie hits the talk circuits claiming that Michael Steele is a moron for doing this. Steele fires back that it’s not the rules, it’s the players who can’t handle them. Meanwhile, I wonder if Steele could have had any idea what the Citizen’s United case would ultimately do to the race.
With Santorum’s gaffs, he’s damaged goods already. He appeals enough to people looking for that sweatervest so far removed from Bill Clinton’s blowjob that it makes them feel comfortable; you could make him feel ashamed to admit he has a penis, and it’s pretty obvious. He’s brought the Leave it to Beaver routine to creepy heights of repression that remind me of Dan White just before he shot the titular character in Milk.
Santorum’s also raking in the Evangelicals against Mr. Mormon. This is bad for the Republicans: he’s now the only one that they can get anyone excited for at this point besides Ron Paul. The race is officially a 2 man race at this point, and they’re hobbling along pathetically, old man Paul ranting all the way.
Meanwhile, rich boy Romney’s donors are getting nervous. They know that they have to face off against Obama, but they’re still paying into Romney’s campaign to keep himself afloat and at least give him a chance at 1144 delegates. The price tag of this election is only rising, and many of Romney’s donors have maxed out donations that they can give. It’s difficult to tell if a SuperPAC alone can cover the difference, and how much political flack he might take for it.
If both Gingrich and Santorum are hell bent on going down swinging and Romney continues to spend like a drunken sailor to keep ahead, God only knows how much money will be hemorrhaged by the GOP before it gets into the ring with Obama.
Cesar and I arrived in Chicago just as the Puerto Rican primary was taking place. Santorum was already preaching to the Puerto Ricans, stuffing his foot in his mouth up to the knee in Puerto Rico.
We turned on MSNBC in the hotel room. Romney would go on to win Puerto Rico, but then make either the delusional mistake, or tell the transparent lie, that this means that he can pull in the Latino vote. Although he won by quite a healthy margin, this simply isn’t the case: Puerto Ricans, like Cubans, tend to be a bit more conservative than the general demographic of Latinos.
This is largely because, when it comes to immigration, everyone speaking Spanish is screwed except for them: Cubans are offered special political refugee status when they come to the United States, and Puerto Ricans are born with citizenship. Neither group needs to worry about ICE busting down their door and putting their kids in foster care for a few years. Although they may play soccer and empathize with guys who don’t have their papers, they already got theirs Jack.
Romney may try to toss Marco Rubio into the VP spot, but I doubt it will work as he plans. Latinos, while they used to vote for anyone with a familiar name like Rubio or Sanchez, now have Rubios, Sanchez’ and Sotomayors to understand and support their communities. Now that they’ve achieved some representation, they’re paying more attention to what these guys actually say. This explains why Rubio is quickly losing popularity with Latinos as his buddies in the party press for laws like SB 1070, and he can’t get away from it any longer. He only recently offered even luke-warm support for the DREAM Act. The guy is trying to paint a handsome Cuban smile on that, but there’s shit in his teeth.
We unpacked our things in another hotel, though with only two of us it’s the first time in our entire trip I’ve been able to have a bed on the road to myself that wasn’t made out of wood in a trailer. I quickly found and crushed a bedbug, looking every bit as horrible as they do in the NYC subway ads. The hotel I stayed in on the edge of the Amazon was better, except for the hot water. Still, considering, the sleeping situation was still the best I’d seen on the trail so far.
Cesar and I found ourselves in the Rebano Church in downtown Chicago. Pastor Santiago, an Evangelical preacher with a shaved head and easy charm, instantly came over to greet us as we made our way in. He wore a grey suit and a large smile representing LEAP, the Latino Empowerment Association of Pastors. “I want to talk about a few things that we are concerned with as Latino pastors” he began.
“We see in our congregations many Latino families who are good Christians and people of faith. We have to hear candidates talk about faith in Jesus Christ, while at the same time condemning millions of Christ-loving men and women, boys and girls, who happen to be immigrants. As Christians, we feel that we have to speak out and defend the most vulnerable in our society. Any candidate who is running for the presidency will not get our vote, the Evangelical vote, while they are condemning the faithful who are attending our churches.” The good padre went on to say that many politicians cloaked themselves in Jesus rhetoric on abortion, but would ignore the good Christian thing to do and be willing to separate that mother from child depending on immigration status.
The importance of the good father’s speech was not lost on us: this was an Evangelical pastor saying that God wants the DREAM Act. This is critical, because Romney is weak amongst Evangelicals AND Latinos, making this a sweet spot for him to hit if he could only get behind a more empathetic immigration policy and win over organizations like LEAP. Unfortunately, his political miscalculations early in the race on immigration and reputation as an inconsistent conservative make this a difficult switch, with tremendous fallout in a primary that’s still his to lose.
After the preacher stepped down, two other preachers and the CEO of a local business talked about the merits of the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform: the preachers talked about the morality of the issue, the CEO talked about how open a society they had in Chicago, and that it was a welcoming city within a welcoming state. Finally, Fanny, a member of the Immigrant Youth Justice League, took the podium.
“Mitt Romney, today, I’m here to tell you one of the many stories that you’ve heard before, but choose to ignore because they come from an illegal immigrant. That’s what you call me, because you don’t think I deserve to be in this country.” She started. “I’m an undocumented graduate student, and an Army wife” she said, her husband leaning against the wall behind her.
“I came to this country 10 years ago. My family and I left Mexico because it’s one of the many countries affected by violence and political and economic corruption. I don’t blame my parents for bringing me here, I honor their choice because, thanks to them, I was given the opportunity to get a better education, and an opportunity to fight for my rights. I’m currently getting a masters degree in public policy at the University of Chicago. I know that you must hate this because, as an illegal immigrant, you don’t believe that I deserve in-state tuition, but I’m lucky to live in Illinois, a welcoming state. It’s a state which accepts immigrants, and which immigrant rights groups have worked hard to create a safe space for undocumented youth like me. I not only received in-state tuition, but a full tuition scholarship, and you know why? It was because I earned it. Unfortunately, there are thousands of undocumented youth in states where politicians like you believe that they don’t deserve the right to attain access to education.”
The education monologue was bad enough for Romney, but then, against a guy who spent his time in France during the Vietnam war, she turned to her Army husband. “You said that you would veto the DREAM Act, yet you will support the ARMS Act, a pathway to residency for undocumented youth who serve in the military. I also happen to be an Army wife. My husband has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as an Army wife I have served this country: with every letter, phone call and skype session I was providing my soldier with support.”
When it was David’s turn to talk, he said that his anxiety was ten times worse not knowing if his wife would be put in deportation proceedings while he was fighting in the desert. After, they gave us a nice quote for YouTube for our “Veto Romney” campaign.
As Cesar and I left Chicago, MSNBC was playing in O’Hare airport. Santorum had just had another YouTube-worthy missquote. This happened pretty close to his last gaff, creating a YouTube clip of him saying that he doesn’t care about unemployment or growth rates because he’s basing himself on something more fundamental. Romney is outspending him 7-1 in Illinois. If Romney can’t take the moderates of Illinois, which I doubt, but if he couldn’t, it’s a seriously bad sign that Republicans are rallying against the Anti-Romney, like a sweater-vested T-1000. If it’s even close, like in Michigan, it will be an indecisive victory, which probably wouldn’t even knock Gingrich out.
What’s worse for Romney is that, when they break down how much he needs, it looks like he’ll likely be bogged down until at least until June so long as Santorum keeps sucking off his sugar daddy Foster Freiss.