How do you not see this?

Santorum has made as the centerpiece of his case (against Romney), that Mitt is "uniquely unqualified" (Rick's his words, oft repeated) to be our nominee because it takes Obamacare off the table (theoretically). Again, this is a chief argument in the Santorum primary campaign. To turn around and pick Romney would be to immediately discredit himself as the honest, forthright, "true" conservative.

And Romney's too cute by half (in my opinion) defense of Romneycare has consistently focused around "well, that was what the state wanted, its' a sate right, I wouldn't do it on a federal level." I don't buy that for a second - on Meet the Press in 2009, in the middle of the Obamacare debate no less, he advocated the individual mandate. 51% of GOP primary voters IN Massachusetts, in exit polls, said Romney care went too far. Romney's response to this was they went too far, in essence perverted it, after he left. Well hells bells Mitt, did you think you were emperor? That your word, your intention would last as long as the program? That is simply an insufficient answer in my eyes. Romney has proven over and over that he must be nudged into conservatism. In addition the man argued - in the Mass governors race - that he was NOT a conservative. Such a label would have cost him the race in that state. And his abortion stance has morphed, according to what race he's in, as well. And recently he took up the language of OWS noting that he "wont raise taxes on the 99%." And you can argue "well, he was running in Mass, of course he said that to get elected." What that argument is missing is if Santorum wins it will be PRECISELY because he effectively convinced primary voters that such a man can not be trusted to be a consistent conservative. And THAT is who he should turn around and put as #2 on his team? That doesn't make any sense to me.

The bottom line - IF (and it's a big if) Santorum wins it will be because GOP voters thought he was the authentic conservative in the race. That's the ground he's staked out, that's his calling card. If he turns around and picks Romney as VP it will immediately undo any legitimacy he would have gained. He would be, to invoke the tired old phrase, shooting himself in the foot. I don't care about Romney's ability to fund raise - Obama will raise the GOP all the money they could ever spend. You've simply misjudged half the dynamic here. For Nominee Romney to pick Santorum makes perfect sense (and Santorum can accept, promising to bring his influence into the administration). But f Santorum picks Romney it will will delegitimize the very reason he won.