Santorum exits after a campaign that beat all expectations
Everyone who had Rick Santorum making it until the Tuesday after Easter, not giving up his presidential campaign until he’d contested 26 of the 56 primaries/caucuses and won the second-most delegates in them, take your bow.
Or maybe we should just leave the applause to Santorum himself.
A campaign that started with little money and few believers, on the ashes of a blowout of a failed Senate re-election six years ago, pushed Mitt Romney to the brink in such key states as Michigan and Ohio and defeated Newt Gingrich across much of the Deep South. Santorum won Iowa by a hair — though he wasn’t recognized as the winner for a couple of weeks — then used a trifecta of upsets over Romney to become the last serious challenger to him.
He didn’t always help himself by talking at length about social issues in an election year bound to be dominated by dollars and cents, but that’s who he is — and Santorum’s authenticity is part of what drew more than 3 million GOP primary voters to him. Like Mike Huckabee in 2008, he proved there’s still a sizable contingent of evangelicals who are willing to buck the establishment and vote their consciences in a Republican primary. And he may have gone farther than Huckabee in demonstrating an economic platform that conservatives could embrace.
What ultimately did him in were two things. First, he had a way of talking about social issues that, in my view, was unnecessarily abrasive. As I considered whether to vote for him, I couldn’t escape the belief that he could have made the same points in a more appealing way — and that the way he made those points endangered his ability to win the presidency and act on them.
Second, he couldn’t shake his association with the 2000-2006 era of the GOP-led Congress, when Republicans lost their fiscal bearings and turned spendthrift — losing the gains made after 1994 and setting the stage for even bigger blowouts once the Democrats took control in 2007. His votes for big-government Republican policies, and his wince-inducing defense of them as unavoidable in the “team sport” of politics, couldn’t be reconciled with the necessity of paring back government.
It will be crucial now for Romney to woo the voters who chose Santorum instead of him during the past three months. There is some debate about whether they would actually sit out the election, possibly handing it to President Obama. Romney can’t take them for granted, and can’t take that chance. He would do well to be very visible in reaching out to Santorum and to do whatever it takes to get Santorum to bury the hatchet — it was a very ugly primary at times — and work to elect him.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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261 comments Add your comment
Kyle Wingfield
April 10th, 2012
4:43 pm
Ernest: I don’t make a habit of “condemning” this statement or that one, because then people twist my silence on other issues to equal acceptance of them (as you’re attempting to do here).
I did make an exception for the birthers, and have criticized them on a few occasions. There’s a search function for my blog, which makes finding those posts pretty easy for you, if you’re actually interested.
Michael H. Smith
April 10th, 2012
4:43 pm
(again, Obama is not any more of a socialist than Reagan, Bush, or any preceding Republican President – reality check, people)
Say what! Nah, you need the reality check my friend.
Obama has stated clearly his commitment to wealth and income redistribution in terms I never once heard either Reagan or Bush use. Obama’s redistributive version of wealth use of class warfare and this rich pay their fair share business is completely parallel to the mantra of Karl Marx.
From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.
Ernest T. Bass
April 10th, 2012
4:43 pm
Do you believe in God?
No.
Steve
April 10th, 2012
4:45 pm
Wow, it just shows how uninformed and uneducated so many on the “Right” are in these forums, when they know so little about anything that Fox News doesn’t dare talk about…
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
April 10th, 2012
4:45 pm
Fundamental Decency, I’m calling you Trash because we all know that you’re the blogger formerly known as God Hates Trash – Superstar. There is no sense in you denying it.
So I use your former handle because keeping up with your rather childish name changing is boring and unproductive to me. And the fact that you copy and store people’s posts from this blog is creepy to the max. You’re really an Internet stalker in training, and I wonder when you’re going to take the next step in that regard.
Ernest T. Bass
April 10th, 2012
4:48 pm
I did make an exception for the birthers, and have criticized them on a few occasions. There’s a search function for my blog, which makes finding those posts pretty easy for you, if you’re actually interested.
Might go back and look. Just find it funny that it took almost no time for you to take offense to someone pointing out Romney’s actual religion.
While lies about Obama’s drew silence.
Do you believe Obama is a Muslim ? Just curious you did vote for Gingrich.
Michael H. Smith
April 10th, 2012
4:48 pm
Just show how, WOW, you put your foot in your mouth trying to defend Obama’s Marxism.
Ernest T. Bass
April 10th, 2012
4:51 pm
Obama has stated clearly his commitment to wealth and income redistribution.
Whats wrong with a little income redistribution ?
The estate tax did that quite nicely for years.
We are going to end up a country of
A Peasants
B Worthless trust fund babies.
What happened to earning your own way and getting ahead on your talent? Not how much money daddy had.
Rafe Hollister
April 10th, 2012
4:56 pm
Just Saying
How can anyone claim that Romney is Obamalite? One wants to enforce Obamacare, the other repeal it. One wants to stop the spending, the other wants to increase it. One wants to balance the budget, the other thinks that is just silly. One wants to redistribute income, the other wants a flatter fairer tax system. One wants to appoint liberal justices to the SCOTUS, one wants to appoint justices that believe in the Constitution and not try to stretch it.
Guess you will be voting to reelect the Blamer in Chief, otherwise, you wouldn’t be trying to equate two opposing forces.
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
April 10th, 2012
4:57 pm
“Whats wrong with a little income redistribution ?”
Everything that is wrong with the liberal mindset is encompassed in that one statement.
“What happened to earning your own way and getting ahead on your talent?”
You obviously don’t own your own business, Ernest.
@@
April 10th, 2012
4:58 pm
Whats wrong with a little income redistribution ?
The estate tax did that quite nicely for years.
Ernest is an advocate for double taxation?
Ted
April 10th, 2012
5:01 pm
His campaign didn’t beat all expectations…what a silly thing to say. He’s a loser who dropped out of the race. He only won some Southern states because that’s how much people can’t stand Newt Gingrich.
Hillbilly D
April 10th, 2012
5:04 pm
I’m not much of a fan of Romney but I don’t really care what kind of drawers somebody wears and I still ain’t figured out what the big deal is about putting a dog in a cage, on top of a car. From the account I read, he even went to the trouble to fashion a makeshift windshield for the cage, which is more than I probably would’ve done.
Michael H. Smith
April 10th, 2012
5:11 pm
Whats wrong with a little income redistribution ?
Well, Comrades
What’s wrong with a little stealing, if someone has more than me I can just rob them blind for whatever I want… I mean in fairness to me or to serve the interest of Social Justice for the greater good of a Social Democracy?
Fundamental Decency is a Concept that is Dying in the Republican Party
April 10th, 2012
5:12 pm
@Tiberius – Your lightning rod of hate!
April 10th, 2012
4:45 pm
Fundamental Decency, I’m calling you Trash because we all know that you’re the blogger formerly known as God Hates Trash – Superstar. There is no sense in you denying it.
**********************************************************
Kyle knows who I am.
Michael H. Smith
April 10th, 2012
5:13 pm
Poor Kyle.
@@
April 10th, 2012
5:15 pm
Hillbilly:
Rarely, if ever, have I asked you to elaborate, but I’m curious this time. What prevents you from being a fan of Romney?
@@
April 10th, 2012
5:16 pm
And you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.
Just saying..
April 10th, 2012
5:19 pm
Rafe Hollister
April 10th, 2012
4:56 pm:
“How can anyone claim that Romney is Obamalite? One wants to enforce Obamacare, the other repeal it. One wants to stop the spending, the other wants to increase it. One wants to balance the budget, the other thinks that is just silly. One wants to redistribute income, the other wants a flatter fairer tax system. One wants to appoint liberal justices to the SCOTUS, one wants to appoint justices that believe in the Constitution and not try to stretch it.”
Today. But his record as a politician is that of a “watch this space” kind of guy.
lefty_316
April 10th, 2012
5:20 pm
Good riddance to Mr. Santorum. One can only hope that social conservatives get the message that their perverted and divisive agenda are no longer welcome in the GOP. It’s time for them to form their own party.
Aquagirl
April 10th, 2012
5:23 pm
and I still ain’t figured out what the big deal is about putting a dog in a cage, on top of a car.
I still haven’t figured out how anyone would come up with the idea.
Michael H. Smith
April 10th, 2012
5:24 pm
Oh and by the way, to all those who get hung up on this flip-flop business, I have two questions for you:
1) Name a politician that has never once changed his or her mind on or about anything, or on or about any issue?
2) Have you never once changed your mind on or about anything, or on or about any issue?
Yeah, thought so
carlosgvv
April 10th, 2012
5:24 pm
“a campaign that beat all expectations”
“leave the applause to Santroum himself”
“pushed Mitt Romney to the brink”
Well, Kyle, I guess we know which Republican you wanted to get the nomination. Incidentally, this preference doesn’t make you look too good.
Michael H. Smith
April 10th, 2012
5:28 pm
Goodnight all.
Just saying..
April 10th, 2012
5:29 pm
Michael H. Smith
April 10th, 2012
5:24 pm:
“Oh and by the way, to all those who get hung up on this flip-flop business, I have two questions for you:
1) Name a politician that has never once changed his or her mind on or about anything, or on or about any issue?
2) Have you never once changed your mind on or about anything, or on or about any issue?
Yeah, thought so’
Seemed really important to many Republicans in the 2008 election.
@@
April 10th, 2012
5:36 pm
I still haven’t figured out how anyone would come up with the idea.
Innovation is the mother of invention.
Rafe Hollister
April 10th, 2012
5:38 pm
Just Saying
I will take the guy who is saying the right things presently, over one who spent his youth “gravitating to the Marxist professors” and governing like he learned his lessons well.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
April 10th, 2012
5:40 pm
Now Romney is free to unmask and turn himself into….well, I don’t know, who does really?
Whatever that may wind up being, we do know one thing for sure, it’s far better than obozo is.
Dusty
April 10th, 2012
5:44 pm
Well, it does look like the election liberal propaganda group has been put in action already. They were just waiting for the last dropout. But they sound so familiar.
Remember Mz Godzilla who was a liberal employee and posted something Bush/negative almost every five minutes on Bookman’s blog (before Kyle came) as IN The News. There were 20 of those folks paid to work in Georgia for Obama in the last election. No telling how many are ready now.
So here comes Ernest T. Bass. Didn’t he bring up “underwear” and keep asking about it like he was puzzled. Typical!
I’d say “Fundamental Decency” is on his own. Nobody would pay him for such stuff. You have to be cheery, kinda “pert” and halfway clever ( all with a straight face)..
@@
April 10th, 2012
5:48 pm
Instead of opposing an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is essential to protecting the country, Obama has supported extending it. Instead of trying terrorists as criminals in civilian courts, the administration will try them before a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay. Instead of closing the prison camp there, Obama is keeping it open. Obama said he would start pulling out troops from Afghanistan in July. Now the Pentagon is saying that date is not set in stone. While he said previously he would roll back the Bush tax cuts for those making over $250,000, Obama ultimately supported retaining those cuts.–Commentary Magazine
Then there’s his flip-flop on Super PACS. Probably more but I stopped counting.
Fundamental Decency is a Concept that is Dying in the Republican Party
April 10th, 2012
5:49 pm
@Tiberius – Your lightning rod of hate!
April 10th, 2012
4:45 pm
Fundamental Decency, I’m calling you Trash because we all know that you’re the blogger formerly known as God Hates Trash – Superstar. There is no sense in you denying it.
So I use your former handle because keeping up with your rather childish name changing is boring and unproductive to me. And the fact that you copy and store people’s posts from this blog is creepy to the max. You’re really an Internet stalker in training, and I wonder when you’re going to take the next step in that regard.
*********************************************
You would be SURPRISED AT who I am.
When you put your comments out there in the public it is FAIR GAME.
I am not a stalker, just smart enough to use your OWN words against you.
Be careful what you say if you don’t want it REPEATED.
Hillbilly D
April 10th, 2012
5:49 pm
@@
He’s sort of wishy washy for my taste. Of course, he is a politician.
Hillbilly D
April 10th, 2012
5:50 pm
I still haven’t figured out how anyone would come up with the idea.
You have a car, a cage and a dog. The family is in the car (I have no idea the size of the car), where else you going to put the dog?
Dusty
April 10th, 2012
5:55 pm
AquaGirl @ 5:23
Honey,”You aint got no dog in this hunt!”
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
April 10th, 2012
6:00 pm
I see that the koward liberals are manning up against Mormonism, courage that they seem to be sorely lacking when it comes to Islamism.
And there is a hidden message in all this manufactured hysteria, it means that Mormons are totally harmless. If they weren’t, all these little pipsqueak liberals would fall silent.
Rafe Hollister
April 10th, 2012
6:01 pm
I don’t think Romney will be flying his dog all alone in Air Force 1 to meet the family in Hawaii.
MarkV
April 10th, 2012
6:02 pm
Dusty@ 5:44 pm
Congratulations to being able to read the posts about the “underwear.” I gave up in the middle of the first one.
Since many posts today are off the topic anyway, I will remind you of your post late last night. Did you believe I would leave it unchallenged?
Dusty @11:51 pm: ”Don’t you have to give some reason for your assertion that he is wrong? You did give some reasons but they were educated guesses, not what we call proven facts.”
I did not? Read td’s argument (@5:50 pm): “You have to have a photo id to buy a beer, buy tobacco, get in a bar,…” Now be honest: Is that true or false? Just a simple question of facts you know well.
Just saying..
April 10th, 2012
6:08 pm
Rafe Hollister
April 10th, 2012
5:38 pm:
“I will take the guy who is saying the right things presently…”
Well, aren’t you hard to please…
Dusty
April 10th, 2012
6:18 pm
MarkV
Glad to answer “last night” for you. I am always honest, thank you. So let me tell you, I can’t stand the taste of beer, have never smoked but have been in restaurants that served alcohol that also had a bar and I don’t think they asked for ID.. I don’t drink alcohol except Manichevitz with fruitcake once a year. (Yeah, I know. A real dud!)
I do know teenagers have to show ids to prove they are old enough to buy beer or alcohol. I knew someone who worked at a convenience store who told me that. Not sure about cigarettes.
Does that help?
@@
April 10th, 2012
6:19 pm
Once upon a time…
Obamacare and the Deficit
Obama’s world of fantasy.
Aquagirl
April 10th, 2012
6:22 pm
where else you going to put the dog?
In his back yard
At a friend’s house
In a kennel
….there’s plenty of places. And why would you take the dog if there’s no room? Is Mitt spatially challenged?
Honey,”You aint got no dog in this hunt!”
True. I also don’t have one $#!^^ing down the back of my car either, thank goodness.
Leeeeeeeroy Jenkins
April 10th, 2012
6:23 pm
Santorum hides his child with a defect? Mighty christian of him.
That’s one thing I give Palin credit for – she’s not ashamed of her kid with a disability.
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 10th, 2012
6:24 pm
Ooops. changed name back.
@@
April 10th, 2012
6:24 pm
Worst day of my life.
I get carded everytime I buy alcohol (beer). Last time I was at the store, I was in the self-checkout. The attending ?clerk? was standing some distance away. The machine told me to wait for assistance (I.D. check). She waved me off.
I look old from a distance???
It was devastating.
schnirt
Hillbilly D
April 10th, 2012
6:29 pm
In his back yard
At a friend’s house
In a kennel
Those won’t get the dog from point A to point B.
MarkV
April 10th, 2012
6:29 pm
Dusty @ 6:18 pm
Thank you for your answer. Yes, young people may have to show ID to buy cigarettes and alcohol, or in a bar. But to claim generally that one needs a photo ID for those actions is false, and it most certainly does not apply to old people in small rural communities. As a matter of fact, I have not been asked to show my photo id in Atlanta probably for at least a year except for voting, and although I do not smoke, I buy some wine and occasionally beer for visiting friends, and I pick up my prescription medication.
Dusty
April 10th, 2012
6:34 pm
Leeeeroy Jenkins, 6:23
Gotta say it. You are one sick puppy.
You don’t use your sick child as a propup for publicity. You love and cherish them and suffer with them when they are ill. Go hide your face somewhere.
tiberius your lightning rod of hate!
April 10th, 2012
6:43 pm
Well, everybody has got the idea about how this next election is going to sound. Liberals will focus on anything but Dear Rulers record, and focus on personal attacks instead of issues. It’s all they’ve got.
Dusty
April 10th, 2012
6:47 pm
MarkV
I’m very much an adult but don’t live in a rural community. Never have. But according to @@s comment, she was checked (or almost) for age at a city grocery when buying beer. .
Perhaps, if age is the only restriction, they don’t bother to check if one has gray hairr, etc. etc. etc.
PS Got lotsa good mountain air today. Good mountain food! A good time altogether. Now we have to eat yesterday’s leftovers. I’m gonna hear complaints!!! Maybe I won’t claim ‘em as my offspring and make ‘em show their ID. Yes!
Hillbilly D
April 10th, 2012
6:51 pm
I live in a rural community.