As I hear more and more comments questioning how anyone could possibly choose Mitt over Newt, I’d decided explain what was the deciding factor for me in making this choice. Please note that this doesn’t mean that if he wins I won’t support Newt in the general – Obama is the worst president I’ve ever seen (granted I am younger then some here, but still) and I know my duty. But this is why I haven’t been able to get behind Newt.

Mitt was not my first choice, or my second. And believe me, since I’ve joined team Mitt he has repeatedly tried to convince me I’m backing the wrong horse. At times I’ve been tempted to throw up my hands and support team SMOD and be done with it. And I still reserve the right to change my mind and switch – and I have been sorely tempted. But one particular issue has kept me from jumping on the Newt bandwagon.

I can look past the adultery. I never really bought his Come to Jesus moment – somehow the idea that a “the other woman” can lead you into a better understanding of God and a stronger relationship with him just never passed my BS detector. When (only a year ago) he tried to blame his cheating on his great love for his country it confirmed it to me. But I don’t demand my candidate be a saint. I’d certainly like them to be a little closer then Newt is, and I think it hurts us when we argue about how character matters, but I can deal with it.

I can, if need be, get over his strongly pushing for an individual mandate – Romney passed such a law in Mass. I can look past the times he’s gone against conservative thinking or the flip-flops, Mitt has done the same and worse. And even the crazy ideas he sometimes comes up with. All this I could look past. I would really, really like not to have to overlook these issues, and usually would not, but with the choices we have…. what are gonna do? Stay home? Not this guy. It is what it is.

Now people decide to run for President for a number of reasons. The best reason is that they really don’t have a strong desire to be President, but don’t see a better option out there. I’d say Huntsman or Perry would be a good example of this. Some candidates run knowing they have no shot, but want to push the conversations, and the candidates, in a certain direction. Without endorsing any of his ideas, Ron Paul is the obvious example of this, but I’d also say I suspect Santorum knew that a guy beat badly in a Senate race wasn’t going to win the nomination but knew he could put a bigger focus on family values. Romney appears to be running for no reason other then he really, really wants to be President. Whether that’s to do something his dad couldn’t, trying to be the Mormon who breaks the glass ceiling, just a rich guy looking for a challenge, or something else, I don’t know. Being President seems to be his motivation.

Newt appears to have gotten in the race to make a buck.

I’m sure some will disagree, but all the evidence appears to point that direction. The deciding that going on a cruise was more important than campaigning for a guy who was  near the bottom of the polls. When he could be bothered to campaign it looked exactly like a book tour – including pushing his books whenever he got on TV to talk about the race. And pushing books to explain your views does make some sense. But his choices of where he was “campaigning” on any particular day had no resemblance to a strategic plan of winning the race. He is also the guy who charged his own campaign over a quarter million dollars for an email list and for travel. It’s not uncommon for a candidate to use companies he has founded for his campaign and some of that money will obviously end up in their hands – but to have your campaign pay you personally? Other candidates spend large sums of their own money to run – Newt, who is trailing badly in the money race, does the opposite. To the extent that he is running seriously now, it appears to be no more then because he got his feelings hurt, and no one hurts Newt’s feelings and gets away with it.

Now I can hear some saying whatever his reason for entering the race, the fact is he is now the best candidate still standing. That his motives may not always have been great, but he did do a lot of good when he was speaker and could again. And I understand that logic. It makes sense. I can get why some people would choose to view it that way. But here’s the thing, Newt is a smart guy. He knows how bad things are. He knows how important it is that we defeat Obama. He knows how important the Republican nomination process is this year. He can see how much people are hurting in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. He can see how important it is for the future of the country. And yet he decided to use the Republican race to make a buck. And that just gets under my skin. It makes me see red. It infuriates me. His country is in trouble, and all he can think about is how he can use it to make money for himself. When you think of all the people who have died for our country, and he uses the race for the POTUS, in this environment, as a personal publicity tour… Oh that just gets to me.

Every candidate can see the problems facing this country and how serious they are. Some chose to run because they felt like they were the best option. Some knew they weren’t or knew they wouldn’t win, but felt that a topic that was important for our future wasn’t getting enough attention and they need to change that. Romney saw a challenge he felt he could tackle.

Newt saw a money making opportunity.

UPDATE: After reading the early comments, it’s clear that I wasn’t clear enough on one issue. I don’t believe Newt ran for a mire quarter million dollars – it’s not that money that I think got him in the race. That money just demonstrates to me that he wasn’t going all out trying to win the race. I believe this race was nothing more then a publicity tour for him. He wanted to get his name back out there and improve his book sales. That’s the scam I believe he was running. Other candidates were on stage to try to replace Obama. He was on stage to pimp his books and himself as an important and well connected guy, one whom might be worth paying as a not-technically-but-basically-is-a-lobbyist.

As many have already heard, the 150 member group of  conservatives who have gotten together in a ranch in Texas have decided to collectively back Santorum even if they had previously declared for other candidates. They had gathered together due to find an alternative for Romney.  Obviously this is another big get for Santorum who benefited greatly from similar endorsements in Iowa. This should result in a big influx of cash for the Santorum team while Newt and Perry will have to answer questions about why they weren’t chosen. If one candidate is to become the anti-Romney and deny him the nomination, if that’s still possible, it will almost have to be Santorum at this point. Complain and whine about why 150 get to make this decision and say you’ll never give up on your candidate all you like, this likely closes the door on anyone else managing to unite the anti-Romney faction early enough to deny Mitt the nomination. There simply isn’t time to rally around another candidate after this – this is the last shot to do it.

The question become can Santorum come the nominee, and further, do we want him to? On the first issue, can he, I believe if almost every anti-Romney candidate rallies around him, it is possible. Mitt still has a lot of advantages, and I believe Santorum has ballot/delegate issues in more then just VA. But yes, very few delegates have awarded, and with this endorsement Santorum could gain the momentum to pull it off – if he successfully unites the other candidates supporters. That is far from certain, but he does have a week (an eternity in campaign time) and there is some evidence of Romney falling in the SC polls, and the scorched earth attacks of Newt and Perry has likely made many of their supporters willing to look elsewhere. There were already rumors that Newt was considering dropping out after NH if he didn’t do well enough and endorsing Santorum. Given that he appears only to be in the race now out of spite for Romney, I wouldn’t be shocked to hear rumors of him thinking about the same thing getting leaked to the press by him, giving his supporters winks and nods to go support Santorum instead to stop Mitt, and him spending the next week mostly as Santorum’s personal attack dog. Will it be enough? Personally I doubt it will be, but who expected Santorum to get within 8 votes of winning Iowa? If Santorum can beat Mitt in SC, then all bets are off.

On the other issue, do we want him to win the nomination, honestly I’m even more doubtful. Frankly I have to believe that Obama is laughing his you know what off. Santorum? Looking beyond his issues with conservative voters as discussed on RS, how will he do in a general election. The guy who decided to run on social issues on an economic year? The guy who says that as president he’ll talk about thinks like when it’s ok for you to have sex (hint – it’s only when you’re trying to procreate)? The guy who gets young people excited – but only because they enjoy mocking him for his views on gays? The guy who is almost certain to fire up Obama’s base? The guy who’s never really been pushed back on because no one saw him as a threat? How will he do when facing Obama’s attack machine?

Honestly I’m not particularly for or against Santorum. I just don’t know that he’s a winning candidate. What do other people think?

*To be clear, I know this isn’t a group of all Texans, it’s a group of conservative/evangelicals that met up in Texas, that without a real name have generally been called Texas this or that or a Texas conference. I assume most people on RS have heard of it by now and know who I’m talking about.