Ohio looms large on Super Tuesday. Can Romney increase his delegate lead?

Santorum may have a point of entry here to the extent that he successfully presents himself to mid- and lower-income Ohio primary voters as a “blue collar Republican."

But it’s worth noting that both Romney and Santorum have seen their “unfavorable” rating rise in Ohio in recent weeks, according to the Quinnipiac University poll.

And for Romney especially, the bloom seems to be going off his rose among some prominent conservative commentators.

Though he won Michigan and Arizona, writes New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, “He lost his general election narrative.”

Speaking of Romney’s recent tax reform speech, writes Douthat, “The Romney campaign has declined to explain exactly how the cuts will be paid for, offering vague promises of loophole closing and spending cuts that suggest a return to supply-side irresponsibility.”

“If left unrevised and unaddressed, this irresponsibility threatens to demolish the pillars of Romney’s general-election argument,” he warns. “Between his verbal miscues and his clumsy attempts to defend his right flank on policy, the likely Republican nominee is suddenly headed for the kind of political and ideological cul-de-sac that losing presidential candidates often end up occupying.”

Syndicated columnist George Will goes even farther, suggesting that Republicans might as well concentrate on taking over the US Senate and building their majority in the House of Representatives rather than trying to oust the incumbent President.

Neither Santorum nor Romney “seems likely to be elected,” Will writes in a column to be published Sunday and seen in advance by Politico’s Mike Allen.

“From Louisiana's Gov. Bobby Jindal to Wisconsin's Rep. Paul Ryan, Republicans have a rising generation of potential 2016 candidates,” he writes. “[T]he presidency is not everything, and there will be another election in the next year divisible by four.”

Perhaps by then, the toxic atmospherics around the Republican nomination race – decried recently by Sen. John McCain and former GOP governors Jeb Bush, Haley Barbour, and Mike Huckabee – will have improved, and the scene won’t make Sen. McCain feel like he’s “watching a Greek tragedy," as he said this week.

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about Mitt Romney? A quiz.

Previous

1 | 2