Dr. Juan Blog -- Feb 17, 2012 Who is really winning now? Another surprising week in politics! Did anyone believe Santorum would be doing so well? Many may think that Santorum's climb to second place, replacing Gingrich, is helping Romney. The opposite is true. Romney has done well with his negative campaigning (even though voters say they don't like negative campaigns … negative campaigns work most of the time). He has spent millions on effective anti-Gingrich ads, but, as many political campaign experts will tell you, while A is attacking B, C is climbing! Romney never thought Santorum would be so successful in picking up the votes that Gingrich lost. You see, Romney had a greater lead when the anti-Romney vote was divided between Gingrich, Santorum. Now, all the anti-Romney voters are flocking to Santorum (and so is the money, by the way). Remember I mentioned the 3 Ms in one of my last blogs? Santorum now has them! Momentum, Money and Message. President Obama: President Obama got some good numbers recently but also got harsh attacks. He raised almost 30 million dollars for his campaign. News reports state that unemployment went down in January. Government-supported GM reported great advances. Nevertheless, some say President Obama is spending too much time campaigning/fundraising, when the nation is still in crisis. (He is already the presidential candidate of the Democrat party.) Regarding the unemployment numbers, critics say that unemployment is down only because the Obama administration began counting in a different manner 8 months ago! Critics say unemployment numbers are now related to numbers of job-seekers, not jobs lost or created. And regarding GM success, numbers of car sales are linked to distribution of cars from manufacturing plants to dealerships not only cars bought from dealerships, critics say. Finally, President Obama is having a very difficult time convincing Catholics that he is their best choice when he promotes that private religious institutions must include contraceptives in their health plans. Please notice how he chose Latino Mayor Villarraigosa to head the Democrat National Convention this year. He knows he has lost many Hispanic voters and the "forced contraception plan" did not help. How can President Obama win? He must convince Americans that they are better off than they would have been without him. This is tricky. He can say that the economic crisis began with Bush, that Bush also overspent, that Bush also indebted the nation. President Obama can blame congress for not passing important reforms. Nevertheless, these messages are hard to sell. Voters want a leader in the White House. Voters believed his message of hope in 2008, they won't believe the same message in 2012. Romney: How can Romney win? He must change his strategy. Though his negative campaigning has kept him as frontrunner, he must now tell the nation how he will be better than President Obama. Many Republicans are still not convinced that Romney is Conservative enough and that he can beat President Obama in November. (And many Catholics and Evangelicals are uncomfortable with his Mormon religion.) Finally, Republicans no longer want to hear his great success with Staples and how he is not a politician but a businessman, etc. etc. They want to know how he will deal with national issues? He must begin to sound like a president and confront President Obama head on. Most poll show that Obama and Romney would tie today!!! Please join me today on CNN Espanol at 5 pm CT and post your comments on Facebook and Twitter at @HernandezJuan so I can include on CNN segments! Saludos. Dr. Juan Hernandez