We have reached the home stretch as we are heading toward the final series of primaries and the nomination convention in late August. The primary season began with 10 candidates vying for the Republican nomination, and now that number has dwindled down to four. However, one man has clearly become the frontrunner and that is former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. After his wins in the primary contests in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia on Tuesday, it is projected that Romney will obtain half of the 1,144 delegates need-ed to secure the presidential nomination. Despite this, his three remaining opponents have vowed that they will remain in the election until someone actually secures the nomination. Former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and Romney’s stiffest competition, Rick Santorum, has urged voters not to give up on him. He asks them to remember the ugly, drawn-out Demo-cratic nomination contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that led to the nomina-tion of a strong candidate who won the general election. The Republicans, on the other hand, quickly nominated a relatively weaker candidate, and he lost. He hopes that a long drawn-out process this time around will lead to the nomination of someone who the Republican Party can rally behind to defeat Obama. However, a tough road lies ahead for Santorum if he hopes to surpass Romney. According to a new Associated Press count, Santorum currently has 273 delegates. In order to clinch the nomination, this would mean he would need 72 percent of the delegates still at stake. Therefore, it appears to be Romney’s race to lose, and the big players in the political arena are beginning to realize this.

Over the course of the past few weeks, a number of big names in the political realm have thrown their support behind Romney. This past week alone, Romney secured the endorsements of Sena-tor Marco Rubio (Florida), former President George H.W. Bush and House Budget Committee Chairman and Representative Paul Ryan (Wisconsin). The mes-sage that these men are sending in endorsing Romney is essentially the opposite of what Santorum has been expounding. Instead of calling for a drawn-out fight for the nomination, they are saying that it is time for the fighting to stop. They feel that it is time for the party to come together and support one candidate. Only then will the Republican Party be able to beat Obama. I do not agree with this. Romney will prob-ably be the Republican nominee, but the point Santo-rum is trying to get across is a valid one. A longer cam-paign season will make the eventual nominee stronger. If everything gets thrown out on the table now, there is less of a chance of some skeleton being brought out of the closet later. As Santorum says, look to history. Obama won because his contest with Clinton made him appear to be a strong candidate while McCain lost because he won the nomination so quickly that no one realized how weak of a candidate he actually was. It’s true that the contest should not be drawn out until the convention, but voters should not stop fighting for the candidates they believe in simply because they are losing.

It took a while for me to decide which candidate to support; however, I have always had a gut feeling that Romney would win the Republican nomination. This is because of one simple reason: the economy. The economy is going to be the dominant issue in the election and that is Santorum’s downfall. Santorum’s appeal is that he is the conservative candidate. He is a staunch social conservative that holds very strong opinions on issues such as gay marriage and birth control. The issue is that in times of economic downturn, people don’t care about social issues. Sure, they may hold some of the same opinions as Santorum, but they care more about finding someone who will solve their economic woes. The man for that is Romney. With his extensive background in the business world, Romney has the necessary experience to be successful as president. Considering the current state of the country, I believe he will win the election. Things aren’t looking good for President Obama. Among other things, gas prices continue to rise and Obamacare, the so-called biggest accomplishment of his presidency, is soon going to be dismantled. And what is the president doing? No, he is not having taxpay-ers fund a trip to Africa for his wife this time. He is coming on TV and once again making a statement about a controversy before all the facts are known. Come on! We deserve better. This is America.

Contact Matthew Eichel at [email protected].