Rick Santorum for President?
On my personal blog, today, I've written about "Will They Learn to Love Mitt.... Or the Tale of the Activist Judges."
Of course, it's about Mitt Romney's narrow win in the Republican caucuses in Iowa on Tuesday, in which he defeated conservative former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Rick Santorum by a mere eight votes. Also about the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision of 2010 which enabled Romney's private PACs to viciously attack former House speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia who was riding high in the polls lo those many weeks ago but who finished a miserable fourth in Iowa behind Ron Paul, the libertarian Congressman from Texas.
The narrow Iowa win could augur trouble for Romney, whom many continue to view as a shoe-in for the GOP Presidential nomination this year.
And what of the strong second place finish of Rick Santorum? Well, while Romney continues to appear stiff and unexciting. . . as I would term it, looking and sounding like a storefront mannequin. . . Santorum presents a fresh face and is sure to excite people while Romney surely never will. Not in a hundred life times, Mitt. Sorry.
Indeed, Santorum could be a rising star. Attractive young family, great childhood anecdote in which he described his coalminer grandfather's "enormous hands" while his grandfather lay in his coffin. Just the right populist tone.
See this article on Santorum in the new issue of Time by Joe Klein on "The Passion of Rick Santorum." Santorum might prove too conservative for the great American public because of his attitudes on abortion, gay rights, and health care, but his opinions seem firmer than Romney's, whose career demonstrates him to be a flip-flopper. Obama Care or Romney Care, anyone? At least Santorum seems more consistent and you know where he stands.
Republicans need someone to fire up the base just like Obama fired up the Democratic base in 2008. Here of course I will 'fess up that I am an Obama supporter but am very much of an interested onlooker at the GOP race.
In this Republican electoral cycle, after rejecting a slew of possible rivals to Romney.... Michele Bachmann, Donald Trump (!), Rick Perry, Herman Cain, John Huntsman (probably), and Newt Gingrich (ditto), is Santorum the guy for the Republicans in 2012? It will be very interesting to see what the coming months bring. Don't count Santorum out in the South, particularly as Gingrich and Perry may have more or less sabotaged their own candidacies by missteps and their poor showing in Iowa. At present, Santorum has the momentum and the glamor, and as Klein says, the needed passion.
Of course, it's about Mitt Romney's narrow win in the Republican caucuses in Iowa on Tuesday, in which he defeated conservative former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Rick Santorum by a mere eight votes. Also about the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision of 2010 which enabled Romney's private PACs to viciously attack former House speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia who was riding high in the polls lo those many weeks ago but who finished a miserable fourth in Iowa behind Ron Paul, the libertarian Congressman from Texas.
The narrow Iowa win could augur trouble for Romney, whom many continue to view as a shoe-in for the GOP Presidential nomination this year.
And what of the strong second place finish of Rick Santorum? Well, while Romney continues to appear stiff and unexciting. . . as I would term it, looking and sounding like a storefront mannequin. . . Santorum presents a fresh face and is sure to excite people while Romney surely never will. Not in a hundred life times, Mitt. Sorry.
Indeed, Santorum could be a rising star. Attractive young family, great childhood anecdote in which he described his coalminer grandfather's "enormous hands" while his grandfather lay in his coffin. Just the right populist tone.
See this article on Santorum in the new issue of Time by Joe Klein on "The Passion of Rick Santorum." Santorum might prove too conservative for the great American public because of his attitudes on abortion, gay rights, and health care, but his opinions seem firmer than Romney's, whose career demonstrates him to be a flip-flopper. Obama Care or Romney Care, anyone? At least Santorum seems more consistent and you know where he stands.
Republicans need someone to fire up the base just like Obama fired up the Democratic base in 2008. Here of course I will 'fess up that I am an Obama supporter but am very much of an interested onlooker at the GOP race.
In this Republican electoral cycle, after rejecting a slew of possible rivals to Romney.... Michele Bachmann, Donald Trump (!), Rick Perry, Herman Cain, John Huntsman (probably), and Newt Gingrich (ditto), is Santorum the guy for the Republicans in 2012? It will be very interesting to see what the coming months bring. Don't count Santorum out in the South, particularly as Gingrich and Perry may have more or less sabotaged their own candidacies by missteps and their poor showing in Iowa. At present, Santorum has the momentum and the glamor, and as Klein says, the needed passion.
Total Comments 5
Comments
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I think Santorum is going to become one of the failed Not-Romney's fairly soon, Chris, but that's just my two cents. Guessing who'll catch fire next in this crazy race for the nomination is dicey work.
I think you're right about Romney; he does look and sound like a storefront mannequin -- in a horror show. Every once and a while he says something or acts in a way that gives me the creeps. He is a hollow man. It's strange to think of the Republicans lacking in passion for their candidates, almost all of whom (with the exceptions of Huntsman and Paul) have done their best to throw them raw meat. Seeing things through my very blue lenses, they've also been lacking in reason for a very long time.
Best,
EdPosted 01-10-2012 at 08:49 PM by Ed Shacklee 
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Hi Ed
Thanks, Ed. Huntsman is the one candidate of the Republican field which whom I feel most comfortable. As you say, most of them are scary for one reason or another. Newt Gingrich as President: would you trust him with his finger on the nuclear button? Even Romney, for all the accusations from the conservatives that he is a moderate, is threatening war with Iran over them getting the bomb. Ugh. And that's just what America needs right now... another war.
I have long thought that both North Korea and Iran are being used as "straw men" to scare the American people. Just as Saddam was. . . Saddam was no threat to the United States, and may not even have been much of a threat to the Middle East as a whole. And yet consider all of our treasure and American lives (4,000 or so) plus those of Iraqis (estimated to be around 150,000 dead) in unseating him and in the civil war following his overthrow. Was it all worth it? Emphatically, NO it was not. Ron Paul may be an isolationist and extreme in his views, but the man is at least correct that the United States should not have got involved there. It was a war of choice that we need not have fought, and I would suggest that our present economic mess is partly attributable to George W. Bush, Cheney (read Halliburton), and Rumsfeld's foolish overseas adventure. For shame. Uh, maybe Romney might not be needed to ride in on his white horse if the last Republican administration had been more fiscally responsible both domestically and internationally.
Best regards
ChrisPosted 01-12-2012 at 01:10 PM by ChrisGeorge
Updated 01-12-2012 at 03:23 PM by ChrisGeorge -
The white horse he'll be riding will have belonged to Diomedes, I think. I wouldn't want to get in its way.
Posted 01-12-2012 at 05:25 PM by Ed Shacklee
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Well said, Ed.
Chris
Posted 01-12-2012 at 05:51 PM by ChrisGeorge
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Well now it looks as if Santorum actually won the Iowa caucus but by a narrow amount, now that the votes have been retabulated, as announced this morning. But as Romney said in his acceptance speech and reiterated in a new statement, it was a virtual tie between him and Santorum. It doesn't look as if Santorum has got enough traction to beat Romney is South Carolina. The only one who might do it is Gingrich and he's lagging about ten points back in the latest polling. Barring anything unforeseen, it now looks as if Romney will be the likely GOP nominee.
Posted 01-19-2012 at 07:18 AM by ChrisGeorge
