By Susan Duclos
Now that Mitt Romney squeaked a win out of Iowa (by eight votes) and won the New Hampshire primaries easily, the GOP presidential candidates move on to the first large state primaries set for January 21, 2012, in South Carolina. Then on to Florida for the January 31, 2012 primaries there.
Polling for both states show Romney in the lead with Santorum polling second in South Carolina, then Gingrich, Paul Perry and Huntsman. In Florida it is Romney, Gingrich, Santorum Paul, Perry then Huntsman pulling up last.
With Mitt Romney locking up his "front-runner" status among the GOP hopefuls, the attacks in the next 10 days against him will be brutal as most the Republican field will focus their attention on stripping away at his polling lead before the South Carolina primaries.
Some pundits claim the attacks will "undermine" Romney in a general election if he becomes the GOP nominee.
Others, like myself, believe if the Romney campaign cannot withstand the same type of attacks his own supporters, and his own campaign, have leveled against his GOP opponents, then he would never survive the general election against the Obama machine which will be bringing up the very same issues against Romney.
Should another candidate chip away at Romney's so-called "inevitable" status and overcome him to take the GOP nomination, that candidate would undoubtedly be stronger against Obama in November 2012.
If Romney survives throughout the primaries and does become the eventual nominee, then he also will be stronger heading into the battle against Obama.
Win/Win.
Primary/Caucus season is all about fighting to become the party's choice, and while we will probably see the field narrow down after South Carolina and Florida, depending on who takes second and third and who is relegated to fourth, fifth and sixth, the battle for the nomination is what the primaries and caucuses are all about.
To suggest that everyone should just drop out if they haven't taken first or second place in the first two, small states, is to attempt to negate the whole reason that each state is given a chance to weigh in with their preferences.
Supporters should continue supporting their candidate, making the case of why their chosen candidate would be best qualified to become president, and why their preferred candidate is more qualified than those they are not supporting.
When the final choice is made and one candidate is left as the nominee of choice for Republicans, then supporters need to coalesce behind that candidate to go up against Barack Obama in November 2012.
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