It’s fascinating to hear the Republican spinmeisters minimize the prolonged presidential primary bloodletting by comparing it to the 2008 campaigns between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
To be certain, the Obama/Clinton battle was fierce into June. But what was also certain was that most of the followers of Clinton would eventually vote for Obama. More importantly, most of the Obama supporters would have supported Clinton had she won the primary.
I don’t think that comparison would apply to the current battle among the remaining four Republican presidential hopefuls.
Clearly the GOP is a bitterly divided nation. The religious conservatives are following the Santorum banner. The business and party establishment types are coalescing around Romney. Meanwhile, those who aspire to live in a future lunar colony are sticking with Gingrich.
And let’s not leave out Ron Paul. The way the votes have been tabulated during the Republican primary, we may yet discover he’s actually won all of the primaries and caucuses.
The bottom line for the GOP is that the fervent supporters of these candidates are far less likely to vote for an intra-party rival in the fall against President Obama.
