Jack Wheeler claims to have been present at the endorsement meeting and that the vote was disingenuous:
When asked one-on-one why they were going for Santorum when they knew he had no money, no organization, and stood not a ghost of a chance to win the nomination, the truth came out:
“If we unify behind Santorum, it will force Romney to pick him as his running mate – for he’ll know that’s the only way to get our support in the general (election in November).”
That’s the slimy deal behind this. They’ll go for Romney if he goes for Santorum on his ticket. Should we call them Judas Conservatives?
We suspected this all along: Santorum is a stalking horse for Romney. A vote for Santorum is a vote for Romney. Folks in South Carolina need to know this.
The cynical ploy, however, will not work – and not just because the Romney guy rolled his eyes when told about it (Romney has his heart set on Marco Rubio). It’s because there was no unity at this meeting. ...
...A majority of the folks there chose Santorum – but there was no agreement that everyone would now get behind their choice. Some will continue backing Perry. A much larger number are now committed to Gingrich as the Not Romney. Others are going to focus on doing whatever they can to see no candidate gets a majority of delegates for a brokered convention.
A brokered convention, by the way, is how Sarah Palin could get the nomination. Or Rick Perry.
Wheeler did not suggest how a brokered convention could be engineered. Renew America's Bryan Fischer, host of the American Family Association radio show "Focal Point," was concerned the Santorum endorsement lacked unity, and tried to offer a solution:
...word is out that the Gingrich supporters are complaining that they got sandbagged, that the fix was in, and that a lot of them left before the final vote. I anticipate that the Gingrich supporters in the crowd will quickly issue either a massive joint endorsement or a raft of vocal and visible individual endorsements. The Santorum consensus could get lost in the backwash and leave the impression on a gullible public that Gingrich actually won the vote.
Unless the Santorum boosters do something similar and quickly, the weekend vote will have virtually no impact on the race.
The best hope right now for social conservatives who are alarmed at the prospect of a Romney nomination is a brokered convention...
...it might be better for babies and marriages and America if all the conservative non-Romneys — Santorum, Gingrich, and Perry — hang in there as long as humanly possible in order to pull as many primary voters as they can...
...If any one of them drops out, a certain percentage of their supporters will drift to Romney. The only way to stop that is for each of them to keep campaigning, keep the heat on Romney and keep their supporters from leaving the pro-family reservation altogether.
In other words, if the pro-family movement cannot gather behind one candidate — and they can't — then it's best for the cause if they all stay in the hunt.
It's not clear that Fischer's math is right. Someone besides Romney needs to win some primaries for the convention to go broke. Continued splintering among "the pro-family movement" would not achieve that.
Also of note, failed U.S. Senate candidate from Alaska, Joe Miller, tweeted on Friday a link to an article warning against "Romney-cide", and followed with the comment: "Brokered convention offers lifeline 2 GOP"
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