Romney: The "Not Santorum" Candidate

The Republican presidential nomination process has seen its share of "Not Romney" candidates rise and fall. The latest is Rick Santorum.

But with wins in Arizona and Michigan, the path to the nomination for Romney becomes clear: ironically, it's to become the "not Santorum" candidate.

Romney was quoted as saying he won't set his hair on fire to stir up base voters. That's a fairly good peek into a successful strategy. Previous top-tier challengers to Romney's nominations have allowed themselves to say some fairly crazy things to stir up the base.

But Romney wants to be known as a cool, competent manager of the economy. I'm intrigued by this Althouse poll that asked readers who they wanted managing their finances.

While Romney is a cool customer, his campaign steadily destroys his challengers with opposition research. While my Democratic friends are currently laughing about the pratfalls of the GOP candidates, I am positive there will be a time when laughter turns to rage when the Romney machine focuses it's oppo research on President Barack Obama.

For now, Romney just needs to tone down the "rich guy" talk and keep focused on job creation and lowering gas prices.