Posted on 01/25/2012 5:10:13 PM PST by TitansAFC
Sen. Rick Santorum has no viable path to victory and brings no new issues or ideas to the table. He no longer serves a purpose, or has a justification to remain in the race.
Santorum has no viable claim that he is more conservative or more electable than Gingrich. He has no viable claim that he will be better in raising money, in organization, or would do a better job as president. There is simply no path for him. Further — despite winning Iowa, Santorum lost badly in NH and SC, and has no means to complete in FL. It is time for him to leave.
The Santorum campaign probably thought, prior to SC, that it had a chance to win values voters. SC results show that those voters went to Gingrich over Santorum, despite an all-out values attack against Gingrich. SC should have put an end to that thinking. There simply is no path for Santorum.
It is time for him to drop out. Hopefully to support Gingrich. It is best for Santorum to quit while he is in a respectable position. Now is that time.
The problem is Ron Paul has $ (2nd only to Romney). Santorum doesn’t.
I think Rick has great “influence” and at this point may be better suited to helping the eventual nominee defeat Obama. I would love to see him take on that battle. If he leaves now, he leaves intact with plenty of respect and that will allow him to have more credibility later. Just my two cents.
At the time he dropped out, Perry was very unlikely to win, but threatened Newt’s ability to beat out Mitt.
I don’t think that’s the case now with Santorum. He will drop back down to just a few percent at most, so Newt should continue to do well unless he screws up or some scandal raises its head. In other words, Newt could beat Newt, but I don’t think Rick can at this point.
But he does represent a genuinely conservative backup in the race in case Newt implodes for some reason. We’ve seen a lot of ups and downs in this primary cycle.
Frankly, I was hoping that Sarah Palin would be drawn back in, but it doesn’t look like that’s in the cards.
And I like the idea of defeating Romney here and now in Florida. If Romney loses Florida, he’s done.
Santorum has already admitted he’s abandoning Florida, but he shouldn’t drop out. He should just recommend to the Florida voters (like Sarah did in South Carolina) to vote for the leading conservative in the race (Newt in this case) and deprive Romney of the win and the delegates. After losing to Gingrich in South Carolina and Florida, Romney will either drop out or be dumped by the establishment or go down in flames later, then it’ll be a two man race between the two conservatives, Santorum and Gingrich.
Ron Paul is not a conservative and he’s not in it to win it anyway. He’ll have the young, dumb, doper, peace and love liberaltarian vote all to himself.
There is nothing Presidential in the way Santorum has slimed the other conservatives, from Cain all the way down to Newt, when it benefited him politically to twist their ideas into something they weren’t. Santorum is a bottom feeder and needs to drop out. We must unify behind Newt. A resurgent Santorum offers nothing new, no new ideas, and nothing at all interesting. Romney will win in the crossfire between conservatives. It’s time to end it and bring our full attention to purging the moderates from our ranks, starting with Romney himself.
What if Newt wins Florida?
If I was Newt, I would be on the phone talking to Santorum as we speak. They are friends from way back and I would imagine if Newt put it the way you did, he would do just that. I know that Newt will be our nominee. I can see America’s improvement almost immediate in 2013.
Yeah, let’s encourage the only conservative in the race to drop out. That’s the ticket!
Yes, there have been only three primaries, but the libs and GOP establishment our powerful. The Hate-Newt propaganda has already been turned on to full power. We must unite behind Newt to stop any Romney momentum from the artificial support he is getting.
You have a very low opinion of what a conservative is.
You make some good points. For someone who puts forth the idea that he’s wind driven snow pure, there is a lot in how Santorum has campaigned that is far from above board.
He has thrown little snide “almost lies” at a number of other Republicans and has yet to give a memorable trashing of Obama or liberals. He keeps saying he is the one who can go against Obama, but he never demonstrates that ability. He keeps saying he is the true conservative but his record outside of social issues does not support that.
No one’s taken him seriously yet, so he’s sort of skated. IMO he would never stand up to scrutiny of a leader. He snuck into the lead in Iowa while everyone was trashing Newt and not paying him any mind.
I vote that Santorum stays in as a “backup battery” for a while. Newtonium is very volatile.
The the race will continue... but right now Newt is treading water and being out spent 20:1.
Absolutely. If he doesn't, then he's too stupid to be considered again.
If Romney loses Florida, he is wobbling but far from done, unfortunately. He will just regroup for Super Tuesday.
If Newt loses Florida (and right now it looks like he will), it gets very very tough. He will have to bounce back for the third time, and sustain it. He already did it twice, so the miracles do occasionally happen.
And yes, Santorum should just stop splitting the Tea Party vote, he got his moment and can go home now.
I read the post... wondered why it sounded so stupid... then I saw it was you...
Keep wishing, praying, betting, planing etc while you sip your favorite drink......maybe your man, Santorum will finally come in like a mule smiling as it eats briars...
I think fellow Freepers...we’re seeing the true problem here...IF IS US...
Heaven help this country...HEAVEN HELP US...
ANSWER ME ONE QUESTION... WHY IS SANTORUM STILL IN THIS RACE WHEN HE CAN BE A HERO...?
With all due respect of course...
This “backup plan” talking point by Rick’s supporters is already old and worn.
He can’t win, under any circumstance. It is time for Risk to drop out before he ruins any future chance at being elected dogcatcher.
Santorum never was a real contender. Although he worked his tail off there, the Iowa win was basically an undeserved windfall for him.
Like I’ve said for a while now, his numbers are simply reverting to trend.
Can’t disagree with that. He only helps mittens from this point on, and even that is minimal
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.