Florida. It is known as God’s waiting room. And that is most certainly the meaning it embodies as the GOP debate and primary draws nearer every day. This is clearly the most significant vote yet, as the race has been split between the three ways thus far: Santorum took Iowa, Romney won New Hampshire and Gingrich ceased the moment in South Carolina. Elder statesman Ron Paul will be avoiding the Florida primary in hopes of securing victories out west. So what exactly will Florida mean for the three headed monster that remains?
Florida means different things to all the candidates. If Gingrich were to win, it would strengthen his foothold in the South and probably secure him the remaining majority of the Bible belt. If Santorum were to win, it would blow the breeze of confidence and significance into his flag; his victory in Iowa still seems sketchy at best. Too close to call between him and Romney. But if Romney were to win, it would signify everything we’ve been expecting. If Romney wins in Florida, he wins the nomination. The only person standing in his way (and I can’t believe it’s come to this) is Newt Gingrich. The only place that toadstool is guaranteed votes is in the South, and if Romney can derail that train he stands stronger than ever to win the nomination handily.
Gingrich has been surging to the naked eye, but if you look hard you will see he’s actually been digging himself a very deep hole that looks harder and harder to get out of. He’s managed to paint himself as a cool handed Christian and Washington outsider, but eventually those colors will run and the voters will call his bluff. He lied to CNN’s John King and the rest of us about “character witnesses” concerning his open marriage with his second ex-wife. He’s passed borderline racism and has developed a blatant sense of infallibility and supremacy. Even Jimmy Carter says Gingrich is racist (sort of). He blows of questions pretending to be unconcerned with petty differences and too mature to let them bother him. While this holier-than-thou attitude worked for a while, it’ll have to catch up sooner or later. You can’t hide in plain sight forever, and Gingrich will learn that the hard way.
The world will come crumbling down around Gingrich sooner or later, but if Romney can win in Florida he’ll be delivering a fatal blow to the fatally flawed Congressional reject. If Romney can even split the South with Gingrich, then he’ll undoubtedly win the nomination. People like Gingrich and Santorum can’t win in states where the evangelical vote doesn’t matter: namely New York, California and Ohio. Texas could be a wildcard, but Romney has already put himself in good position.
But what does it matter? Listening to all the candidates, you can’t help but feel that they don’t actually care about what they’re saying, or understand it. They go through the motions that past candidates took, but those motions are emptier and bitter tasting. No one is battling for anything intrinsically important, Obama included. The only thing these politicians care about is a victory, not for some greater vision of America but only to see the other side bleed. It’s all just become a giant pissing contest, and all of us are standing downwind.
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