GOP enthusiasm gap gone by Nov.

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Updated: March 11, 2012 8:45AM

Democrats are chortling over the chaos in the Republican presidential race. Mitt Romney’s up one week, and down the next with another race recording an upset over the presumptive front-runner. Still, a fierce current of alarm over President Barack Obama’s policies courses through the conservative arteries of America, and it will be a potent force in November.

The big, but perhaps less than earth-shakingly significant wins Tuesday by Rick Santorum in the Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota contests, which awarded no actual delegates, confirm the conventional wisdom about the GOP race.

Substantial elements among very conservative Republicans, evangelicals and the Tea Party remain suspicious of Romney and his commitment to rightist principles. He relies on a huge campaign war chest, superior organization and a ton of negative attack ads to stick to a last-man-standing strategy. Unimpressive primary and caucus turnout reflects a lack of enthusiasm among the Republican base because the field is weak.

Every time New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie or Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels or Florida Sen. Marco Rubio or Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan appears on TV, GOP hearts beat rapidly and remorsefully because one of them is not in the race. Some Republicans even pine for a candidacy by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush despite the obvious drag of his name given how unpopular George W. Bush was at the end of his presidency.

Occasionally speculation pops up, especially after a poor Romney electoral showing, about the possibility of a brokered GOP convention. But it’s hard to imagine a convention turning its back on the millions of voters who turned out in primaries and anointing a GOP nominee untested by balloting among the party’s electorate.

Santorum is the not-Romney of the day. It remains to be seen whether this sincere but dour conservative stays atop the field longer than any previous alternative to Romney.

As for Romney, he has an opportunity Friday to make the case he is worthy of trust by the GOP base. He’s scheduled to speak to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. That address must be more than a collection of right-wing boilerplate, bromides and slogans. He must articulate what a Romney presidency would do based on an agenda characterized by the kind of bold ideas that Romney has thus far avoided. If he can do that, Romney may be able to regain his aura of inevitability in the Super Tuesday primaries March 6.

Even so, the nomination process may drag out into the late spring. Still, the nominee coming out of the Tampa convention will have plenty of ammunition provided by Obama to fire up voters for the general election.

There’s no better example than the boiling controversy over the administration’s assault on religious liberty by dictating that Catholic charities, hospitals and schools violate their conscience to provide insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization services and the “morning after” pill.

This issue encapsulates all that’s wrong with the Obama presidency — an ever-expanding government exerting ever-increasing supervision over the everyday lives of Americans in defiance of the principle of limited government enshrined in the Constitution. Rest assured, come November you’ll see plenty of enthusiasm among Republicans, conservatives, moderates and independents worried and angry about the direction of the country.