Review of the Week: February 5th - 11th

• Santorum's Triple Win Hurts Gingrich More Than Romney
• Obama's Difficult Week
• Two Victories for Gay Rights
• Congressional Stalemate over Tax Holiday
• Articles of the Week

Santorum’s Victories do Little to Dent Romney

Rick Santorum’s clean sweep of the three states contested on Tuesday gave him a big boost both financially and in the polls, but it has done little to affect Mitt Romney’s front-runner status. In a national tracking poll from Saturday, Santorum had risen to 24% (up from 16% last week), ahead of Newt Gingrich (17%), but well behind Mr Romney, who’s on 34%.

Santorum’s victories in non-binding contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri did not give him any delegates, but they did give him a big financial boost, with his campaign raising $3mn in the 3 days after his sweep of victories. Mr Santorum has hitherto been very selective in his campaigning as he attempted to maximise his resources in favourable States. His campaign will now take on a broader approach. A senior adviser to Mr Santorum, John Brabender said “We don’t intend to be a regional player”. Indeed, with Gingrich plumetting in the polls and doing miserable in this weeks contests, Santorum can now claim to being the leading conservative candidate in this race.

The former Senator from Pennsylvania has been dealt the ultimate compliment, with the Romney campaign, which has become synonymous with negativity, promising to be “more aggressive” toward Mr Santorum. A Santorum strategist said that it was “a badge of honour that Mr Romney has decided to destroy us”.

All of the remaining candidates, apart from Ron Paul, went to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. this week. Mr Romney made a passionate defence of his conservative credentials, and it found favour with CPAC attendees, who voted for him in their straw poll of the Presidential candidates, highlighting how largely unaffected Romney’s campaign has been by this week’s events.

This was compounded by Romney’s further victory in the Maine caucuses, where he collected 39% of the vote. Ron Paul came second with 36%, with Santorum in third on 18%. Newt Gingrich rounded off a dreadful week with a last place finished with 6% of the vote.

You can read more Redcoat reaction to and analysis of Mr Santorum’s victories in midweek here.

Obama U-turns on Campaign Finance and is Attacked for Infringing on Religious Rights

A difficult week for President Obama featured a climb down on the role of highly controversial Super PACs and controversy over whether religious institutions should be required to provide treatments to which they have moral objections.

Having previously spoken out against Super PACs (groups which have unlimited fundraising power to support the candidates of their choice), the President executed a humiliating U-turn and admitted that his re-election campaign would have to do some fundraising for the pro-Obama Super PAC, Priorities USA Action, in order to be able to compete financially in this campaign.

Super PACs are a recent invention, brought about by judicial rulings in the last few years, but they have been very controversial in the current Republican primary campaign. Candidates have been able to distance themselves from highly negative ads made by Super PACs, which must not co-ordinate activities with candidates in anyway. This is despite the fact that most are run by very close associates of the candidates, and many candidates have done fundraising for their Super PACs.

Priorities USA Action was founded by two former Obama White House staffers. Mr Obama has attempted to still retain some distance from the Super PAC however. The President, Vice President and their wives will not appear at Super PAC fundraisers.

Meanwhile, the President was attacked for infringing on religious rights this week. A new Department of Health policy required religious institutions to provide coverage for birth control, even if the institutions were opposed to it. Mitt Romney led Republican objections to the policy saying: “Think what that does to people who are in faiths that do not share those views. This is a violation of conscience. We must have a president who is willing to protect America’s first right, our right to worship God.”

On Friday, the White House announced a compromise which shifted the cost from religious institutions to insurers. A statement said: "If a woman works for religious employers with objections to providing contraceptive services as part of its health plan, the religious employer will not be required to provide contraception coverage but her insurance company will be required to offer contraceptive care free of charge." Catholic bishops denounced the compromise, saying it raised “serious moral concerns”.

Double Victory for Gay Rights

It has been a very big week for gay rights in America, with the California ban on gay marriage (Proposition 8) being declared unconstitutional, and Washington’s State-legislature approving same-sex marriage.

A federal appeals court overturned the voter-approved ban on gay marriage that Californians voted through in 2008. The court voted the ban unconstitutional by 2-to-1, saying that it did nothing but "lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians". The case is now expected to go to further appeal and will probably be taken to the US Supreme Court, where it would probably depend on the opinion of Justice Kennedy, a California Republican who is more moderate than his fellow Republican Justices.

In Washington State, a bipartisan group got legislation through the State legislature to legalise same-sex marriage. It will come into force in June, unless it is put on the ballot for November which will, at the very least, delay its implementation. This would make Washington the seventh State to allow marriage for same-sex couples.

Time Running Out for Congressional Deal to Extend Tax Holiday

Time is running out for a deal in Congress over the extension of the payroll tax holiday, and stalemate has settled in. This issue was a cause of partisan division last year, leading to the White House’s “What does $40 mean to you?” campaign.

Republicans will only extend the holiday if it’s paid for somewhere else in the federal budget. Their preferred method of doing this is spending cuts, included a pay freeze for federal employees and higher medicare premiums for upper-income seniors. Democrats, however, want to enact a 1% surtax on people earning over $1mn a year. This does not have enough support to get past a filibuster in the Senate.

Both sides are accusing each other of deliberately stalling in order to gain campaign points. Democrat leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, said that Republicans merely wanted to look like they were in favour of the policy. Republicans, however, believe that the Democrats want this to fail in order to support President Obama’s narrative of the Republican House leading a “do nothing Congress”.

If no deal is reached by February 29^th, the tax rate will revert to 6.2% from 4.2%.

Articles of the Week

Time’s Hilary Hylton looks at Rick Perry and the cost of a failed campaign

CNN’s David Frum considers whether an Obama victory is the best outcome for Newt Gingrich

The Washington Post’s Jia Lynn Yang is sceptical about Mitt Romney’s economic record as Governor of Massachusetts

The Washington Post’s Dan Balz focuses on Romney’s “enthusiasm gap”