Primaires républicaines: on veut abréger la course!

Si la perspective d'une course aussi serrée et animée que celle entre Obama et Clinton a déjà été envisagée, ils sont plusieurs maintenant à souhaiter que tous se rangent derrière Romney. Aucun des autres candidats ne se compare à Hillary Clinton en 2008 et il n'y a rien de bien excitant à prolonger les affrontements. Le G.O.P. est-il finalement prêt à accepter Romney?

 "If there was one clear message from the Republican establishment this weekend, it was this: If Mitt Romney wins in South Carolina, he will be the nominee. On Sunday, less than a week from the January 21 primary in South Carolina, Republicans were explicit in framing Saturday’s primary in the Palmetto State as the last chance for the other candidates to stop Romney’s momentum or concede defeat. They were also clear about one other thing: they want Romney to wrap up the nomination ASAP. “If Romney wins South Carolina, I think the game’s over,” Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC) said on Meet the Press Sunday. “This is the last stand for many candidates.” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, appearing with Scott on the show, echoed this sentiment: If ” Mitt Romney wins South Carolina, no one’s ever won all three, I think it should be over. That would be quite a testament to his ability as a candidate and a campaigner, and I’d hope the party would rally around him if he did in fact win South Carolina.”

On other networks, the message was the same. “It`s kind of a last stand for a lot of the candidates,” South Carolina’s other Senator, Jim DeMint, said on Face the Nation. On CNN, Rick Perry sounded optimistic about his prospects there but wouldn’t completely rule out suspending his campaign if he did not do well in South Carolina. Going on to Florida is “our intention,” he repeated.

Though Graham himself declined to endorse anyone at this time — as has DeMint — he seemed to be rooting for Romney, “Mitt Romney is a good man that Tea Party people should look at closely to vote for because I think he can beat Barack Obama.”%% Electability, as Graham mentioned several times, is certainly an issue. But Republicans have another reason to want to wrap the primary up quickly: they feel the negative attacks are harming their party’s chances in the general election.

There was a time when Republicans wanted a primary more drawn-out than in previous years. They even tweaked their primary rules for allotting delegates so that the process would take a little bit longer, the goal being that the contest would draw attention and create momentum going into the general election. Not anymore. Now, they want the primary to wrap up quickly, and they’re using the South Carolina deadline to frame the race as in the home stretch."

 http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/republicans-are-ready-for-the-primary-to-come-to-an-end.php?ref=fpa