Despite the fact that Mitt Romney won three primaries yesterday and basically has the nomination nailed down, Rick Santorum isn’t giving up on his quest, hoping that a win in Pennsylvania will keep him going.
“When Rick is an underdog, he’s at his best as a candidate,” said Alan Novak, former chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party. Novak has endorsed Romney but believes Santorum has the edge in the state. “He’s energetic . . . speaks from the heart, and he taps into the feelings of voters.”
Pushed by the tea party movement, the Republican Party in Pennsylvania has grown more conservative since 2006, a shift likely to favor Santorum. His positions remain virtually unchanged from his earlier political life. And loyalty still runs deep for the grandson of a western Pennsylvania coal miner.
Now that there’s no chance he’ll win the nomination — sad, but true — he does fill the valuable role of being the subplot to the sitcom, like the nosy landlord Mr. Furley on Three’s Company or Jack on Will & Grace: an endless source of whacky nonsense to amuse, but not really part of the main plot.