After five years of non-stop campaigning, Mitt Romney was officially nomiated as the Republican candidate for president in Tampa Tuesday afternoon. But Ron Paul nabbing delegate votes and Rick Santorum slated to address the convention later the same night are a reminder of how Romney had to fight tooth and claw to win the nomination of an increasingly divided party.

Romney hit the golden number of 1,144 delegate votes needed to secure the Republican nomination but Paul secured 200 delegate votes. Santorum won 255 delegates during the primary election but asked his delegates to vote for Romney after he dropped out. The dissenting delegates from the libertarian fringe may not be as troublesome as those willing to toe the party line, however.

Santorum's speech will focus on welfare reform but his socially conservative credentials are the real message. His presence gestures toward a Republican unity now the party has an official nominee. But the vitriol of the primary campaign season has undermined the united front Republicans need going into the general election.

During his primary campaign, Santorum called Romney a “financier from Wall Street” who would “say anything to be elected." He also slammed Romney's Massachusetts healthcare law as the blueprint for the Affordable Care Act, known derisively in GOP circles as Obamacare.

His alignment with the politically-radioactive Todd Akin (he called Akin a "good man" who made a "ridiculous" comment but their views on abortion are eerily similar) means that for as many values voters as he picks up for Romney, he loses as many moderate and swing voters.

The tragic irony for Romney is that while Santorum and Paul Ryan are supposed to win over conservatives to presidential bid, their hard-won support makes the Romney-Ryan ticket vulnerable to attacks by Obama that he is an extremist, even if by association.

 

Reach Staff Columnist Dawn Megli here.