On a Rick Santorum campaign conference call today, strategist John Brabender reportedly dismissed concerns his guy couldn’t win April primaries in states like Delaware, quipping: “Ask Mike Castle whether a conservative or a moderate won in Delaware recently.”
Castle, of course, was famously defeated in the 2010 GOP primary by Christine O’Donnell.
In response, Slate’s Dave Weigel noted: “The problem with the comparison? It’s obvious. Castle-O’Donnell was a two-way race. There is no indication that Ron Paul will quit the race in four weeks, and little indication that Newt Gingrich will get out before Texas votes at the end of May.”
Actually, the problem with the comparison is that O’Donnell turned out to be a lousy candidate who promptly lost the general election to a Democrat. It was a stupid thing for Brabender to say, precisely because the analogy hurts Santorum.
In Delaware, Republicans, it turned out, might have been better off nominating the milquetoast moderate over the firebrand conservative. This raises an obvious question: If Republicans want to beat Barack Obama, shouldn’t the national GOP make a similar calculation and back milquetoast Mitt over Rick?
What is more, I’m not sure Brabender really wants to dabble with the idea that Rick Santorum is just like Christine O’Donnell. After all, the two already have a few things in common: One launched a campaign against masturbation and the other wants to crack down on pornography. (They could probably kill two birds with one stone by jointly attacking the latter.)
The only thing preventing this from turning into a real gaffe is the irony that O’Donnell has already endorsed Mitt Romney.)