Anyone?

Hey, how ’bout you, down there in Ohio? Any takers over there in Massachusetts? Anyone in the Super Tuesday delegation?

I’ll vote for Santorum on Tuesday, if you promise to cast my vote for Newt when you go to the polling place on March 6th.

You see, I’d pretty  much decided to vote here in Michigan on Tuesday for Speaker Gingrich– especially after listening to a half-hour speech he gave about energy policy, which he delivered seemingly extemporaneously. Good Lord, the man sounds like a leader. Among those left in the race, he’s the fellow who seems the most likely to overturn the federal apple-cart, and do it with zeal and aplomb.

For example, Gingrich is calling for the new Congress, once it is seated on January 3rd, 2013, to prepare repeal legislation for Obamacare, ALL of the regulatory regime passed under Obama, as well as a lifting of all moratorium on domestic oil exploration and drilling on federal lands so that when he is sworn in on the 23rd, he can sign them immediately.

Gingrich has been left for dead in this campaign about a dozen times since announcing his candidacy late last spring. I was among those truly flummoxed by this “right-wing social engineering” broadside against Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposal, but the Newtster crawled his way back into the fight by (more or less) apologizing for the statement, and giving solid speeches and debate performances in a slow and methodical manner.

I’d remained a Michele Bachmann supporter, right until she withdrew from the race in January. At times, Representative Bachmann seemed to have more conservative huevos in her little finger than most of her primary opponents combined (a common malady I note amongst the masculine set, here in Obama’s America). The only time I winced is when she joined in the Gardasil-mandate attacks on Rick Perry, as if it were germane to the price of tea in China. But, she was –is– the most unapologetic conservative on the national scene at the moment, and it would have been an honor to vote for her.

I’d briefly given thought to Hermann Cain, too, but the thought of a national sales tax scares the jeepers out of me if we haven’t first abolished the 16th Amendment. Plus, Cain is such a, a, well– such a jolly guy that I think watching him be president for four years would be a joy. Same thing goes for Governor Perry, to whom I took a shine briefly, as well, after he announced his tax plan.

Then, from out of the weeds of the Iowa cornfields came Rick Santorum, a Senator whom I’d long admired as an important conservative pro-life voice, but seemed to have about as much chance of winning the Republican Nomination as Harold Stassen. Now, mind you, I’d vote a hundred times for Rick Santorum before I would ever cast a primary vote for Mitt “Money Bomb” Romney, but, he’s not clicked with me yet. I can’t explain it much beyond my sinking feeling that he lacks a certain depth that many College Republicans lack. It’s hard to put my finger on it, really, except that he lapses a bit too often into reflexive, defensive  conservative lyrics. I thinks his instincts are fairly solid, but, as his most recent debate performance showed, he’s a True Believer in the game of Washington Realpolitik. And now is not the time for political games.

Mind you, I understand the value of political horse-trading, having lived through two extremely successful terms of Governor John Engler. Yes, that John Engler,  the poster-boy for Wheeler-Dealer Governance (–Engler was the Majority Leader of the Michigan Senate  for many years before he became Governor, and I was certain he would just be a toady for the Status Quo, but he turned into a kick-butt leader, and proved me entirely wrong). Sadly, Engler served for three terms, and that third term was a rudderless as the SS Minnow when it ran aground on Gilligan’s Island. But, no matter. The first two Engler terms made up for the third, and perhaps Santorum is an Engler cum lately.

But, here in Michigan, some polls are showing Santorum in a dead heat with ol’ Money Bomney. So, as a man that will do whatever I can to deny the nomination to Mitt Romney, I will pull the lever here in Michigan for Rick Santorum, if someone in a Super Tuesday state will promise me they will abandoned their Santorum vote for a Gingrich vote in March.

Any takers?