Washington Examiner:
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio -- When Rick Santorum's top aides began to gather here at Steubenville High School for election night, they assumed Santorum would finish second -- a close second, they hoped -- to Mitt Romney in the Ohio Republican primary. "If we can show here that we are very close in a state where we got outspent six to one, I think people have to ask the question, 'What the heck is wrong with Mitt Romney?'" said top strategist John Brabender before Santorum's supporters began to fill the room. How close would be very close? "Five points," Brabender answered.
Then things began to change. As the votes were counted, Santorum moved into a lead over Romney -- first 5,000, then 10,000, then 15,000 votes. Even though there was a lot of the state yet to report, some members of Team Santorum began to ask: What if he wins? Santorum had already picked up victories in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and North Dakota. A win in Ohio would be huge -- and a huge setback for Romney. As Santorum's lead grew, campaign manager Mike Biundo said he had "a feeling" all day that Santorum might pull it out. Biundo admitted that his was a minority opinion among the staff. But things were looking surprisingly good.
Santorum decided to speak while he was ahead. But he had to wait -- and wait and wait -- for Newt Gingrich to stop talking in Atlanta, freeing up the cable news time for Santorum in Ohio. When his time to speak finally came, Santorum was deliberately vague, picking up on Romney's oft-used Olympics imagery to claim that he won "at least a couple of gold medals and a whole passel of silver medals." His campaign, Santorum said, had "overcome enormous odds to make this a great night for us in the Buckeye State."
After the speech, and after most supporters left, Santorum hung around in the high school's weight room, which had been converted into his temporary headquarters. As his lead held, rumors circulated that he might come out to the cameras. But as 11 p.m., and then midnight approached, votes from Cuyahoga, Hamilton, and Franklin counties were counted, and Romney, on the strength of suburban voters, caught up and finally surpassed Santorum. In the end, Romney won by a tiny margin, with 38 percent of the vote to Santorum's 37 percent. Team Santorum began talking about second place again.
But their point was the same as if their man had won. "I think it shows the fundamental weakness in Romney," former senator and current Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said. "He cannot, even with this massive advantage in money, blow Rick away here. This is not a strong candidate."
DeWine, who famously endorsed Romney and then left to join Santorum, had a point. For the Romney campaign, Super Tuesday was supposed to be the day the long, disorganized, and often painful effort by conservatives to deny the inevitability of Romney's claim to the nomination effectively ended. Instead, despite his narrow win in Ohio and victories in his home state of Massachusetts, Vermont, Virginia, Idaho, and Alaska, the day's results left Romney's opponents, especially Santorum, with reason to stay in the race, and Romney himself, still, after these many months, a weak frontrunner.
How weak? Well, in the 2008 Republican primary, John McCain won with 60 percent of the vote in a race against Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. This time, in a four-man race, Romney could not crack 40 percent.
Why was Romney's performance so underwhelming? Talks over the last couple of days with voters who chose Santorum suggested two reasons. One, they still don't trust Romney. And two, they believe Obamacare will be a critical issue in the campaign, and they don't think Romney, as author of the Romneycare health program in Massachusetts, will be able to effectively challenge Barack Obama over national health care.
"I just don't trust what Romney says," said Jim Gilloon of Steubenville as he waited for Santorum to speak. "I believe what Santorum says."
"I think Romney can't be trusted," said Eric Grover, of North Olmsted, who came to Santorum's election-eve rally in Cuyahoga Falls. "I think he has a fundamental character issue."
"Santorum is the candidate who has true convictions," says Karen Downing of Hudson, Ohio. "He gets beaten up for those convictions, he gets portrayed as a wacko, but I really respect a guy who means what he says and stand by it."
"He has morals and convictions and grassroots principles who's willing to stand his ground," said Rick Frecka, a plumber in Cuyahoga Falls.
"Santorum has been more consistent," said Lisa Deines of Hudson, Ohio.
"Much more consistent," said Deines' friend, Greg Ange of Stow, Ohio.
Voters express doubts like that about Romney all the time. Sometimes they do it at Romney rallies, and sometimes directly to Romney himself. For example, on Monday, Romney appeared at a heavy-equipment manufacturing company in Youngstown to push his new theme of "more jobs, less debt, and smaller government." During the question-and-answer session, a woman stood up to tell Romney she has been trying to convince her Republican friends to support him. But, she said, "It's hard for us who are trying to support you to address them when trying to explain why you would be a better candidate."
The woman was particularly troubled by the issue of Romneycare versus Obamacare. "I've listened to all the debates, and I've done my research," the woman said. "I want to know how I can answer to the doubters."
A few minutes later, another woman rose to say she really needed to hear a commitment from Romney: "I need an emphatic 'yes' from you that you will repeal Obamacare," the woman said.
Romney, who promises all the time to repeal Obamacare, seemed a little taken aback. "Why would I not?" he said before beginning to enumerate Obamacare's various faults.
But the woman still seemed concerned. "When the Obama campaign comes against you -- and they're going to come against you with that -- how are you going to be able to convince the voters?" she asked.
Romney said he was eager for the fight over health care -- "I can't wait," he said. But the two questions suggest that even some of Romney's supporters aren't quite convinced he can defeat Obama on what is sure to be a major issue, perhaps the major issue, of the campaign.
No one senses Romney's weakness more acutely than Santorum and his advisers. They're convinced they could beat Romney one-on-one, and for that reason they are increasingly frustrated by Newt Gingrich's continued presence in the race. Gingrich, of course, easily won his home state of Georgia Tuesday night but did not do well in Tennessee and Oklahoma, as he had hoped. Now, Santorum is aiming to beat Gingrich in next week's Alabama and Mississippi contests, in the hopes of finally defeating the former speaker, or at least forcing him into total irrelevance.
"We'd never ask anybody to get out of this race," Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley said on election night. "But you look at the numbers: If Newt were out of this race, we'd be winning these states by ten points."
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