I see Mitt Romney's struggle to put away Rick Santorum in the Republican Primary as being clear evidence that he is a poor campaigner and also a very weak Presidential Candidate.

The Republicans themselves try and play down the fact that Mitt Romney is being forced to spend tens of millions of dollars in state primary after state primary in a effort to defeat a man ( Rick Santorum),  that is viewed as a seriously flawed candidate by large numbers of Americans.

The real mystery of the 2012 Presidential Campaign is that if Mitt Romney is such a great candidate, then why has his campaign been forced week after week and month after month to spend extremely large sums of money to defeat and opponent that has been operating  on virtually a shoe string budget and just the strength of his own personality and convictions, all the while basically waging a "people powered "campaign.

If Mitt Romney has to drastically out spend a financially weak and apparently flawed candidate like Rick Santorum or for that matter  Newt Gingrich, and it is clear that he does have to outspend them. That leads me to honestly wonder can he and the RNC honestly claim that he is the "Great White Hope" for America that Rence Priebus and the Republican Party has claimed would lead the country back to prosperity.

In my life I have seen a number of "Negative Presidential Campaigns" and would eagerly concede that negative ad's work and can be effective in driving down the support of a candidate like Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.

But honestly I don't think this strategy is what has helped Mitt Romney despite his huge investment in negative advertising first against Newt Gingrich and secondly against Rick Santorum.

I think that like all of the other Republican candidates that Michelle Bachman, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and finally Rick Santorum that they all self destructed by saying crazy things and making stupid idiotic statements.

I think that more than anything that it was all of their stupid statements that beat them,  with the sole exception of Herman Cain whose campaign became doomed after allegations of sexual  misconduct were raised. But other than Cain they all lost because of their own stupidity and not Romney's millions

And to top it off, I honestly think that the only thing that has kept the Mitt Romney Campaign and Mitt Romney himself from self destructing is money, he is the only Republican that has had the financial ability to continually run negative ads against each of his opponents.

That is the reason that even today that the base of the Republican Party is being drug by their feet kicking and screaming like a "bride to a wedding with and ogre", for whatever reason they are still not ready to embrace Mitt Romney as their standard bearer.

Yesterday the Election of 2012 finally began and for the first time this entire primary season Mitt Romney was confronted with a candidate that is a better speaker, a more skilled politician and a candidate that can connect and communicate with ordinary people better than Mitt Romney could ever dream of doing.

But most importantly yesterday he was confronted by and opponent who will be able to financially compete with him on a even footing when it comes to campaign financing.

Unlike Gingrich Cain, Bachman and Rick Santorum, President Obama has a sufficiently large war chest to capitalize and exploit  every gaffe that Mitt Romney has made and will continue to make .

I think that the reelection campaign of President Obama unlike all of Mitt Romney's Republican rivals honestly does have the financial resources, the ability and the means to fight back.

Today as I listen to the political pundits talking about the inevitability of Mitt Romneys nomination as the Republican nominee, I am left to wonder if Rick Santorum had had even half as much money as Mitt Romney, would Mitt Romney already have been forced to drop out of the race like just like former Governor Tim Pawlenty.

I think the answer is yes.