Mitt Romney's ‘rich man’ problem, Ron Paul's Mitt Romney problem, Rick Santorum's women problem

Mitt Romney has a very big problem. His wife drives two Cadillacs? He is friends with NASCAR team owners? He likes firing people and doesn't care about the very poor?

Ron Paul has a very big problem. He increasingly looks like a shill for Romney and as he does, his numbers go down. In Virginia, where Paul is on the ballot against Romney, he will have to come out of the closet and criticize Mitt or be exposed as a Romney front.

And Rick Santorum, who opposes the separation of church and state, is solidifying a gender gap of epic proportion that favors Democrats.

The Romney problem is the most bizarre and damaging. He cannot control his propensity for gaffes that make him look like an elitist vulture capitalist. Is America ready for the candidate of the 1 percent? I doubt it. GOP strategists are close to panicking about it.

Santorum is out of control, going so far off the deep end he is almost a caricature of the extremist image that increasingly engulfs the GOP. Ron Paul appears lost in the wilderness of presidential politics, unable to move beyond ancient clichés from Austrian economists, unwilling to criticize Romney and increasingly looking like the attack poodle of the Romney campaign, taking donors’ money to finance attacks against Romney opponents.

And, on national security, every Republican candidate owes an apology to the commander in chief who ordered the death of Osama bin Laden, and they owe an apology to American troops for using their safety for partisan talking points.

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