http://blogs.thedailybeast.com/spin-...s-he-surges-in
What explains Rick Santorum’s sudden surge in the polls?
Yes, I know he won Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri last week, stunning the pundits (who had all but written him off) and revitalizing his candidacy. But still, the numbers are amazing.
Here’s a Pew Research poll that has Santorum edging Mitt Romney, 30 to 28 percent, with Newt at 17.
A Public Policy Polling survey has Santorum rocketing to a 38-23 drubbing of Romney—and a 39-24 lead in Mitt’s kinda-sorta home state of Michigan, where his father was governor.
But stop and think: Santorum is a guy who a week ago could barely buy a headline. He was derided as a true-blue conservative with less charisma than his sweater vest. Now, at least nominally, he’s the Republican presidential front-runner. How is that possible?
“These conservative blocs are desperately seeking someone other than Romney,” says Andrew Kohut, the Pew Research director. After the brief star turns of Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Gingrich, “the list is getting ever smaller.”
That’s obviously a factor, despite the “severely conservative” Romney winning the CPAC straw poll last week.
Another theory is what I call the halo effect. Santorum’s triple-triumph night transformed him from loser (except in Iowa, belatedly) to winner (and a surprise one at that). And Americans love a political rags-to-riches story, which plays into Santorum’s grandson-of-a-coal miner narrative.
But at the heart of the transformation may be the electability issue. Romney’s candidacy is premised on the notion that while he may not set Republican hearts aflutter, he’s the best bet for beating Barack Obama in November.
If the former Pennsylvania senator runs just as strongly, however, Mitt’s argument evaporates and many conservatives will want to rally behind a guy who doesn’t have to insist he’s a conservative. In that Pew poll, Obama beats Romney 52 to 44, and beats Santorum 53 to 43. Those aren’t bad numbers against an in bent this far out, and they’re virtually identical.
National Review is pushing Newt to get out, a development that, while it seems unlikely for now, would enable Santorum to consolidate the anti-Mitt vote, as he did in Missouri. In a piece led "Santorum's Turn," the editors say: “It is not clear whether Gingrich remains in the race because he still believes he could become president next year or because he wants to avenge his wounded pride: an ambiguity that suggests the problem with him as a leader. When he led Santorum in the polls, he urged the Pennsylvanian to leave the race. On his own arguments the proper course for him now is to endorse Santorum and exit.
Finally, Santorum’s three-state sweep brought him a wave of media attention, which may prompt some voters to give him a second look. He showed up Sunday on Meet the Press, This Week and State of the Union. Such exposure is critical this month, when there’s a lull in the calendar and all of one debate, on Feb. 22.
But with that exposure comes the kind of tougher journalistic scrutiny that Santorum hasn’t really experienced in this race. On NBC, David Gregory prefaced a question about gay marriage by saying, “I want to stay on some of the social issues that have come, I think, to define your campaign.” Santorum shot back that social issues are not defining his campaign.
On ABC, George Stephanopoulos asked about an earlier comment to CNN’s John King in which Santorum said he worried that women’s “emotion” might make them unsuitable for military combat. Then Stephanopoulos cited Santorum’s book, "It Takes a Family," “where you seem to suggest that a lot of women feel pressure to work outside the home because of radical feminism.” Wouldn’t that “alienate” female voters?
Santorum finessed the question by saying his wife, Karen, had helped him write that section. It’s a safe bet the tough questions will keep on coming, and how Santorum responds may determine whether he can stay at the top of the polls.
~~~This dude is striking a chord I tell ya!
santorum has said plenty of hateful and re ed that will severely hurt his chances against obama.
the GOP is getting desperate. they keep changing the frontrunner around because they know every single one of their candidates is unelectable in some way.
if nothing else it's never been more evident that the primaries results are being manipulated.
"Dear God, Alah, Budah whatever. Please let Santorum win a few more primaries. Please let him win the GOP nomination."
I noticed that Santorum does not want to discuss social issues. He claims he is running on jobs. The problem is, Obama will not take that for an answer. Eventually you will have to own up to the fact that you hate gays, have an unreasonable stance on abortion and see women as having once role in life, in the kitchen.
don't forget he want to invade the entire middle east and is serious about jihadist missile sites in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
same-sex marriage leads to bestiality
Barry is leading us to the guillotine.
"I noticed that Santorum does not want to discuss social issues. He claims he is running on jobs."
WTF. All he runs on is social issues, but this week in Michigan, his gibberish is a little about jobs.
http://www.theamericanconservative.c...rnment-issues/There are quite a few vulnerabilities that leave Santorum exposed on the right if Romney were willing to exploit them. On role of government and fiscal issues, Romney could criticize Santorum for his votes for NCLB and Medicare Part D. Santorum is in many respects the embodiment of so-called big-government and “compassionate” conservatism, and this was especially true during his second term in the Senate. In other words, he represented everything that conservatives now think went wrong during the Bush years. Hammering Santorum on Bush-era fiscal irresponsibility hits Santorum where he is weakest with conservative Republicans, and it does so without forcing Romney to risk the backlash of any party faction. If Romney tried to make an issue out of Santorum’s record on social policy or even foreign policy in terms of electability in the general election, this has the potential of angering cons uencies Romney wants to placate. Pointing out that Santorum has no credibility as a fiscal conservative would be effective, and unusually for something coming from the Romney campaign it would also have the virtue of being true.
republicans know Barry is gonna win in '12, they're gonna run santorum as a goof.
He didn't say women had only one role - that of stay-at-home wife and mother. He said that those women who make the choice to give up career for family should be just as respected as those who choose career over family. He said his wife felt like she was looked down upon by others when she gave up her career to raise her family.
In the 60's and 70's, the radical feminists pushed the notion that a woman could only be fulfilled through her career and professsional accomplishments; and that those women who chose to stay at home were somehow lacking. This was a blatant lie!
i like it how you guys can vote who the leader for the party, instead of the stupid elected mps...fkn down here we get no say, just vote for stupid party with stupid leader we have no say in....
We get to vote for president we do not vote for party leadership directly. You vote for county seats at the grass roots level and those in turn vote for state delegates who in turn select party leadership at the convention.
His wife is overly sensitive.
Yes, you just stated a blatant lie.In the 60's and 70's, the radical feminists pushed the notion that a woman could only be fulfilled through her career and professsional accomplishments; and that those women who chose to stay at home were somehow lacking. This was a blatant lie!
Bashing Santorum for voting for Medicare Part D would be insanely stupid for Romney. What's he going to say?
"Hey old-ass voters, this Santorum guy voted to slash your drug costs and pass the bill to the head generations after you."
???
"Dear God, Alah, Budah whatever. Please let Santorum win a few more primaries. Please let him win the GOP nomination."
Very true.
I must admit that I am a little surprised at Santorum's second surge. It really speaks volumes about Mitt Romney that he has not been able to lock this thing up yet. He has the money and he has been running since the last election ended. I am now convinced that if either Santorum or Gingrich got out of the race whoever remained would trounce Romney for the nomination. His only hope is that they split the conservative vote and fight it out till the end.
People like sweater vests.
Voting for Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage means voting for unfunded govt spending (which Repugs love when the spending is into their pockets, and which Repug politicians love to do in an election year) and the perverse, cruel doughnut hole.
Here's Frank Rich trashing Willard Gecko.
Who in God’s Name Is Mitt Romney?
His greatest passion is something he’s determined to keep secret.
“Mitt was a nice guy, a smart businessman, and an excellent team player,” he Luck_The_Fakers_responded without missing a beat.
Then came the CEO’s one footnote, delivered with bemusement, not pique: “Still, whenever the rest of us would go out at the end of the day, we’d always find ourselves having the same conversation: None of us had any idea who this guy was.”
the belief that Romney is a phony may be among the very last convictions still bringing left, right, and center together. As a focus-group participant evocatively told pollster Peter Hart in November, Romney reminded him of the “dad who’s never home.”
75 percent of Romney’s own party was searching so frantically for an alternative that Donald Trump enjoyed a nanosecond bump in the polls.
What’s more likely is that the party’s panicked Establishment, and its Wall Street empire, will succeed in their push to crush Gingrich and prop up Romney in any way they can. They still see Mitt as the best available front man for the radical party the Republicans have become—the dutiful Eagle Scout who can hold down the fort as the right’s self-styled revolutionary rabble threaten to overwhelm today’s GOP elites
He may be a bore and a flip-Luck_The_Fakers_flopper, but he doesn’t frighten the Luck_The_Fakers_horses. His steady sobriety will win the day once the lunatic Newt has finished blowing himself up.
Romney is in some ways more exotic and more removed from “real America” than Obama ever was, his gleaming white camouflage notwithstanding. Romney is white, all right, but he’s a white shadow. He can come across like an android who’s been computer-Luck_The_Fakers_generated to be the perfect genial candidate. When forced to interact with actual people, he tries hard, but his small talk famously takes the form of guessing a voter’s age or nationality (usually incorrectly) or offering a greeting of “Congratulations!” for no particular reason.
http://nymag.com/print/?/news/frank-...romney-2012-2/
Santorum is the unWillard Gecko.
Repugs gonna get -whipped by Barry.
Norquist: Romney Will Do As Told
Romney candidacy because they see Romney as essentially a weak and passive president who will concede leadership to congressional conservatives:
All we have to do is replace Obama. ... We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don't need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. ... We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don't need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate.
The requirement for president?
Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.
http://readersupportednews.org/opini...ill-do-as-told
And since UCA lawyers/ALEC write the legislation, all Willard Gecko would have to do is sign UCA legislation.
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