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Searching for a true conservative it appears that the Iowa caucasus will produce an unexpected result as Rick Santorum, a former United States Senator from Pennsylvania, has surged, maybe to the front of the polls, according to the widely respected Des Moines Register. http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2011/12/dmr-verdict-santorumentum-109215.html Santorum’s consistently conservative message has been lightly reported by the mainstream (read liberal) press who has misread the public because of their own bias. Mr. Santorum has been helped, not hurt, but dismissive and stories emerging from quarters disagreeing with his position through mockery. http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2011/12/please-join-me-in-my-fcc-complaint-msnbc-cnn-fox-and-others-continue-to-use-the-word-santorum-at-all-hours-of-the-day/
Mr. Santorum’s conservative positions have been hiding in plain site. He is a genuine social conservative, for instance, without Michelle Bachmann’s tendency for erratic statements. The grandson of a coal miner and Italian immigrant, with a record of winning blue-collar support in his home state, Santorum has a better claim to be the populist alternative to Romney’s establishment-powered campaign than either Newt Gingrich or Rick Perry (OK, NOW is the rightful time to mock my prior pronouncement that Rick Perry WILL be the next President).
At every stop on the Iowa trail, with an itinerary heavy on small towns, Santorum talks about his plan to revitalize manufacturing. He also reminds Iowans that the general election will be fought in places like Ohio and Michigan, and that he’s the candidate in the race with a record of winning over such voters. “Has anybody in this race ever run as a conservative and won an area like the states we need to win?” Santorum said in Pella Saturday, adding of his opponents: “None of them have run as a conservative and had to get Democratic votes.”
Iowa operative Nick Ryan, a onetime Santorum adviser who now heads a super PAC supporting his campaign, said that he’d seen as early as 2009 that Santorum had the capacity to come across as a “principled, full-spectrum conservative that was eloquent when speaking about all three legs of conservatism.”
“Once he decided to run for president — he did it the Iowa way. Rick was not the flavor of the month, not the flash in the pan. He was the guy that was going to have to go out there and do the hard work,” Ryan said. “His retail politicking skill has gained immensely — and you see it in these final days leading up the caucus. He is calm, principled and driven. He is a solid conservative that people feel comfortable that they can rally around and trust.”
Kickoff today is going to be interesting . . ..
My humorous piece didn’t have anything to do with Rick’s positions, just the old Google joke. He does seem like a disarmingly sincere guy, but his “social” positions are utterly wacky, he has long wanted to privatize Social Security, and his number one foreign policy priority is Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran.
The “liberal” media that ignores him would include FOX News and most rightie radio gabbers, I hope you know. And they also ignore the partially great Ron Paul. Personally I think all true conservatives should be ditching the GOP candidates for libertarian Gary Johnson, who’s like Ron Paul with none of the bad points, but you’ll NEVER hear about him in the “liberal” or conservative mainstream media.
And do you have to say “surging to the front?” You’re just making things worse.
Here is where you would normally attach an irrelevant but funny movie clip like Woody Allen as paratrooper in “everything you wanted to know about sex”
I wish Santorum every success through the convention. Then we’ll address him.
(I’m sort of surprised that you’re not a Romney guy, Geoff. Why?)
“Santorum surges to the front” — I just threw up a little in my brain.
I am a little government republican and don’t see Romney or Newt as little government guys.
But Rick (“Outlaw Birth Control and Bomb Iran”) Santorum is a “little government” guy?
Never mind, I withdraw the question.
Yeah…he’s a little government guy who voted for Medicare Part D.
Bachmann can be rightly pissed that after all the work SHE’s put into Iowa, the social conservatives who pushed her to the top in the Ames Straw Poll are deserting her en masse for Senator Man-on-Dog. I think I know the reason. These are traditionally paternalistic folks who aren’t that comfortable seeing a woman in charge. Sorry, Michele!
This isn’t really hard to figure out. Romney’s PAC dumps a million dollars in negative ads against Newt. The “true conservative evangelical” crowd falls for that crap and has to go to someone. It certainly can’t be to a mormon, so who is left? Crazt Ron Paul, no….A Woman???? NO So either Santorum surges or um the third guy….um…let me think….uh….it’s …uh….
It’s a zero sum game. Take the votes from one and they have to go elsewhere, There just aren’t any really good candidates to go to This field is weak and getting weaker
I miss Herman Cain. As Colbert said, “He touched so many people.”
Right, it had nothing to do with Santorum’s tireless efforts to cross the state, personally visiting every possible nook and cranny, his effective use of the town hall platform, or his appeal with conservatives in Iowa. He just got lucky.
If Santorum were a stronger candidate, given all his time there, he would have peaked earlier in Iowa and maintained that lead. This was nothing more than the “anything but Romney” vote shifting to the last option that they hadn’t tried yet.
No one ran negative ads against him (or, as it happens, Romney.) By the time he surged, it was too late to start. That’s why he won. Please delude yourself about him, though; I’d love to see him nominated.
Newbie’s right that he DID work hard, all over Iowa. And he was the only Republican candidate with the guts to speak to MSNBC, many times.
The hardcore Chritianists are gonna have a prayer-fest jubilee in Texas soon, to see who they can get behind. It’s obviously gonna come down to a choice between Santorum and Perry. And Perry has just GOT to be a bigger embarrassment than the other guy, to most Republicans even.
Oh yeah, we liberals would love to have this loser as the Republican candidate.
Here’s some interesting info. on this “principled” candidate;
From NNBD;
In 2006, the non-partisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington named Santorum one of the twenty most corrupt US legislators.
He lost his Senate seat to Bob Casey, Jr. in 2006, losing 41% to 59%, and in an ironic finale to his public career, a major issue in the campaign was that Santorum was living in a house he owned in Virginia — not in Pennsylvania. Further, he had taken a second mortgage on his Virginia home from a private bank that serves only “affluent investors and institutions”, a bank which requires that borrowers have assets far in excess of anything Santorum reported in his public financial disclosure reports.
For the rest of this very interesting bio. go to;
http://www.nndb.com/people/035/000025957/
Anon, I also would love to see a Santorum candidacy. Could we be that lucky?
Can anyone, (and Geoff if you can) please tell me how a raving theocrat can be called a “conservative”? Sorry about the cliche, but Barry Goldwater has to be spinning a mile a minute in his grave.
Call Santorum what you want, but he’s anything but a conservative unless you consider the Spanish Inquisition to be conservatives. (The same applies to Bachmann and Perry. Gingrich is kissing some major evangelical butt but I don’t see a whiff of sincerity and Romney, well, who knows what he thinks.)
in the end it will be romney so all you crazy libs can relax and not go nuts about what is going on in iowa .. oh and as far as corrupt anoster .. who is that guy in the whitehouse i forgot his name nnnnnooobbbaaammmaaaaaaaa . solyndra , acorn , appointing czars and last but not least tony rezko . oh i guess you forgot those . you sounded like a mslsd reporter .
Nicely done tgo, saved me the time and effort dealing with these useless comments.
You’re right, Geoff: my comment was useless, because I withdrew the question. So, I’ll reiterate:
But Rick (“Outlaw Birth Control and Bomb Iran”) Santorum is a “little government” guy?
Geoff,
Hiding behind grating juan’s skirts has got to be a new low even for you.
Yeah, just pretend YOU weren’t whining about how Santorem hasn’t gotten a fair shake by the liberal media or weren’t touting what a true and genuine conservative he is.
Turns out he’s just another scumbag scammin’ folks in the Iowa dog and pony show.
You Republicans are in trouble not only because of your crappy candidates, but also because your platform has to be based on lies and deceit, everything your selling is ROTTEN. Your war mongering, free market, deregulation and trickle down policies have all failed.
Your only hope is that there are enough STUPID people to get whatever lyin’ snake your party picks elected.
[R] REPUBLICAN – RICK SANTORUM / JOE ARPAIO in 2O12
Geoff,
I take you at your word if you say that you’re not doing this, but here’s the top of our hit list:
sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/rnr/2781798948.html 19
orangecounty.craigslist.org/rnr/2781261828.html 14
desmoines.craigslist.org/rnr/2781242220.html 11
chicago.craigslist.org/chc/rnr/2781255832.html 11
newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/rnr/2781250142.html 10
Des Moines – good call for today.
From Jonathan Chait;
“One of the odder political transformations of the campaign is Rick Santorum’s emergence, after years of nasty ultra-partisan culture-warmongering, as a cuddly working-class tribune. My explanation for this is the sweater-vest.
The sweater-vest signals wholesomeness. Sweater-vests are nonthreatening. But since a sweater-vest does not, of course, actually make you a good person, they are the perfect disguise for nasty men.
The iconic case here is obviously Jim Tressel, who spent years and years being touted as a paragon of virtue while running two deeply crooked college football programs. How did he manage it? The sweater-vest, a staple of the endless stream of laudatory profiles that sports reporters kept churning out in the face of mounting evidence of his corruption. And now we have Santorum, cloaking his vicious, narrow-minded politics in the same soft camouflage. When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a sweater-vest.”
Isn’t this santorum we’re talking about? So wouldn’t the word be viscous? And does anyone know a good way to get it out of my sweater-vest?
It’s too insidious to get out of a sweater-vest.
Meaningless quote from a liberal hack. Nice comment anon.
no anoster the scumbag is the clown we have in white house . the scumbag far left dems you belong too .. trouble no no trouble at all we have to do is just keep playing that video of nobama who said if i can turn the economy around i am a one term pres .over n over n over . his wish is our comand get this guy out before he and YOUR KIND destroy this country .. gw , no problem anytime commi anoster comes on here and i see the vile n hate its no problem giving it back to her . /him or what ever it is .
Please, GO, take some remedial English classes and then come back when you can make a coherent comment.
Thanks for making my point about … STUPID people.
So, Geoff, are you going to engage the debate about what a conservative is, versus a theocrat? If not, please just say so.
rapfarts after you n the commi anoster get married come on here with something else . when you have nothing rip on the the persons english . my english is fine . you libs are so smart . SO STUPID IS THE CORRECT WORD ANOSTER . WICH DESCRIBES YOU AND RAPFARTS .
Geez, what a sad pathetic comeback, now I feel like I’ve been kicking a retarded puppy.
I understand your reticence to pound the great coward.
It’s not a fair fight, but, he reaps what he sows.
Latinos for A LATINO PRESIDENT of USA!!!!!!!!!.SANTORUM ! Our First Latino President! VIVA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! La Raza!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Si, Rosario! Se puede! 🙂
no that is what you where pronounce anoster when you where born doc said oh look a retarted puppy
LOL. This is great black humor, watching this ancient cubano gusano’s brain deteriorate day by day, in public!
NO VERN THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING AND NOT KNOW WHERE YOUR AT .. hint ,
I heard this morning that as the candidates head to New Hampshire, “everyone has Santorum on their lips.”
It might be time to call a HazMat alert.