Posted on 02/25/2012 1:20:13 PM PST by WPaCon
Wish I had a nickel for every conservative who confidently predicted that the Arizona debate would, of course, feature obnoxious questions about birth control and the devil aimed at Rick Santorum. As it turned out, CNN’s John King did not ask “gotcha” questions and, for the most part, conducted a fair and informative debate.
The debate moderated by King, along with other events of the past week, has resolved a question that has been swirling since the Missouri, Colorado, and Minnesota primaries: Why not Santorum?
There is much to like and admire about Rick Santorum. He did fine work enacting welfare reform in the 1990s. He was an eloquent and thoughtful advocate for the unborn. He has kept a weather eye on Iran for many years. He’s a dedicated family man. He was the first candidate to raise the issue of family structure in the context of discussions of poverty. And he had a solid, conservative voting record in Congress (with some exceptions — there are always exceptions).
But Santorum would make a poor Republican nominee.
Because he has phrased his socially conservative views in vivid terms, he is precisely the sort of candidate who will evoke a Pavlovian response from the press. Just as they were driven mad by Sarah Palin, they will be outraged by Rick Santorum. The campaign will be cluttered by the continual discovery of “controversial” Santorum quotes from the past three decades, and precious time will be lost as he explains, justifies, or withdraws his comments on women in the workforce, contraception, gay unions, Obama’s “theology” (by which he did not mean to question the president’s faith, something he’ll have to explain over and over), and so forth.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
There is much to like and admire about Rick Santorum. He did fine work enacting welfare reform in the 1990s. He was an eloquent and thoughtful advocate for the unborn. He has kept a weather eye on Iran for many years. He’s a dedicated family man. He was the first candidate to raise the issue of family structure in the context of discussions of poverty. And he had a solid, conservative voting record in Congress (with some exceptions — there are always exceptions).
...he is precisely the sort of candidate who will evoke a Pavlovian response from the press. Just as they were driven mad by Sarah Palin....
Go Rick!
I think Santorum will pull off a narrow win in Michigan. Even many Gingrich supporters here seem to be taking the pragmatic route and voting for Santorum while supporting Gingrich otherwise.
I am sick of so-called conservatives who continue to surrender to, and run scared from, the scumbag Democrat “mainstream” newsrooms. There’s a reason Newt gets standing ovations at debates, and it’s because he is ready, willing, and able to bitch-slap the Democrat “mainstream” newsroom hacks who pose ridiculous questions.
Since you can’t fight it, Mona, you may as well go ahead and try to enjoy yourself.
Where were you and the other Santorum folks, when Newt was/is under attack?
Don’t pick Rick!!
** President Newt Gingrich-”Our beloved republic deserves nothing less.”
Everyone’s gone to the moon??
Yes.
I don’t really have much of a preference between him and Newt, but the attacks on Santorum should stop. No one was criticizing Newt in the way Santorum is being criticized. I think a bunch of the Santorum haters may actually prefer Romney but are forced to express that support for him in criticisms of Santorum.
I will if I want to, Mona. What are you going to do about - vote for Zero?
“Let’s nominate Obama, that way we won’t offend anyone, and they’ll become suspicious of their own candidate.”
LOL! I like the way you think!
I’m not even a Santorum supporter, really.
Just a supporter of the conservative most likely to win.
Since his campaign gained steam, I’ve never seen Newt attacked on this site the way Santorum gets attacked.
Actually I think a fair number of the Santorum attackers are Paulbots. You might have noticed that they’ve become virtually invisible around here lately.
I’m not even getting any Ron Paul FReepmail spam.
You do realize you sound like a child. I have been supporting Newt but because of the childish and nasty behavior of a lot of Newt supporters, I’m seriously rethinking my support.
It is unbelievable to me that some supposed adults around here can’t support their candidate without name calling another good candidate.
You also do realize that you’re the one behaving like you have bestowed sainthood on Newt.
Because Newt brought up the President's record on infanticide. Newt's comment was EXTREME. Yet no followup from King. Curious wasn't it. Did anyone hear it replayed in the news segments in the following hours and days. No. If the press wants to bring up Santorums so-called impolite and unpalatable views on social issues, they sure seemed to be nervous about pursuing it once they opened that line of questioning during the debate.
Newt was unpopular here for a while before his presidential campaign started picking up. Since then, I have not seen much criticism of Gingrich at all on this site.
In my opinion, thread titles that rip Rick Santorum should be minimized before the MI primary. If FR wants to save the nation from the Rominee, we MUST be a pro-Santorum site at least until Wednesday. I know the official candidate for FR is Newt Gingrich. But we NEED to stop the momentum Romney would get if he wins Michigan. Do you want him to have Big Mo for Super Tuesday??????
A single not unpleasant Romney supporter was just banned on a thread. His pro-Romney statements were buried in a thread and most people would not have seen them. Blatant anti-Santorum titles before Tuesday will have FAR MORE EFFECT on helping Romney than one lone Romney fan who didn’t sound very convincing, inside of threads. Headlines catch people’s attention, and on mobile devices sometimes people waiting for things in their lives will ONLY SEE the headlines on FR.
Just a suggestion.
That does make sense, since the Santorum critics are most critical about his stances on social issues.
Maybe I should have put a barf alert next to the title.
I decided not to because Charen’s views seems to be shared by a large contingency of posters here, and I did not find the article extreme enough to warrant a barf alert.
I thought I’d just voice my displeasure in the comments section.
I don’t know about you, but to paraphrase an old quote, the only thing we have to fear is liberals being “driven mad” with fear of Sarah Palin (or Rick Santorum). Errr.... why is that such a bad thing again?
Santorum’s going to insure 4 more years of Obama. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.
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