COLUMN: Republicans need to rally around Mitt Romney as Republican nominee
After a successful night for Mitt Romney on Tuesday, winning the Wisconsin, Maryland, and District of Columbia primaries, the inevitable is now clear: Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee, barring some unforeseen major chaotic event.
While the exact delegate count will not be known until convention, because some states allocate delegates to candidates but leave them technically unpledged, there is some uncertainty. Assuming the unpledged delegates vote for who they are “supposed” to, an approximation that is not 100 percent accurate, but holds true for the most part, Romney only needs 42 percent of the remaining delegates to reach a majority.
Then the remaining primaries must be taken into account. Of the three winner-take-all primaries left, Delaware, New Jersey, and Utah, Romney is expected to easily win all three and will only need 37 percent of the other delegates. After looking at recent polls, Romney will easily win large states such as California and New York, and he is even competitive, if not leading in Rick Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania. Factoring in the delegate count and current polls, it is highly statistically improbable that Romney will not be the nominee.
Now, candidates such as Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, and Newt Gingrich have every right to keep their campaigns going until the convention, but for the good of the party, Republican voters need to start rallying around Romney.
Republican voters will disagree with him on various issues, as with any other candidate, but Romney embodies the general principles that Republicans want in a candidate to challenge President Obama.
On the issue of health care, he has advocated, and even led the charge in his home state of Massachusetts, for reform at the local level instead of favoring a system where the federal government tries to step in and assert more control in what should really be an issue left up to the various states and regions.
Romney has committed to taking immediate action to reduce spending so that we can stop borrowing massive amounts of money while we increase the national debt. Continuing on the path that we are on now will have detrimental effects on our economy for future generations, and if we do not rein in spending soon, we will see the negative effects of our growing national debt sooner than that.
When it comes to immigration reform, he has laid out a plan that encourages foreign citizens to come to America to find work or get an education but it also punishes those who break the rules and come here illegally. More importantly, his plan would secure the border and stop encouraging immigrants to come here illegally.
Romney is not the perfect candidate — such a thing does not exist — but he holds to the conservative principles that the GOP needs in a candidate to run against President Obama. It is time we rally around Governor Romney and present a united front so that we can America back on the right track.
