Santorum: North Carolina will help turn my campaign around

Rick Santorum says North Carolina will be one of the key states to turn around his flagging campaign. But should he drop out before the Republican presidential primaries get that far?

Santorum went on "Fox News Sunday" and vowed that he had no intentions of ending his bid any time soon. Sen. Mitch McConnell on Sunday became the latest Republican leader to call on him to do so. If Santorum loses in Wisconsin and Maryland on Tuesday, as expected, the volume will turn up even more. Santorum is having none of it.

"The map in May looks very, very good for us. Texas, and Arkansas and West Virginia and North Carolina, Indiana, Kentucky. We've got some great states, where we are ahead in every poll in all of those states," Santorum told Chris Wallace.

He's actually tied, 30-30, with Mitt Romney in North Carolina, according to a poll last week from Public Policy Polling. But his point is the same: Romney has done poorly in the South, and a batch of Southern states hold their primaries in May. A conservative turnout could give Santorum a boost.

"If you listen to the folks across this country, we are hearing over and over again, stay in there, we need a conservative," Santorum told Wallace. "We cannot do what we have done in the past as Republicans which is: settle for something that we know is not going to be successful for us. That the establishment wants to give us."

Santorum said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday: "There’s one thing worse than … a convention fight, and that’s picking the wrong candidate, not picking the best candidate to give us the best chance to win.”

A candidate must win 1,144 delegates to secure the nomination. Romney has 568, or less than half the required number. Santorum has 273, according to the Associated Press.

There's little doubt Romney has the nomination wrapped up. But Santorum raises an interesting thought. While polls show the long Republican primary has battered the public's perception of Romney, Santorum points out that the longer the primary goes on, the shorter the general election campaign is. That could neutralize President Obama's financial advantage.

We have no doubt Romney will prevail. But Obama and Hillary Clinton went toe-to-toe for a lot longer than Romney and Santorum have, and we saw how that turned out for Obama. If nothing else, Santorum's continued viability, however slim, would spark more interest in the May 8 primary. It also would be bad news for opponents of North Carolina's marriage amendment. If social conservatives turn out for Santorum, they'll certainly pull the lever in favor of the amendment.

-- Taylor Batten

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