Posted on 04/13/2012 5:25:01 PM PDT by Steelfish
To Beat Obama, Mitt Romney Must Channel Rick Santorum
Ralph Reed April 13
History, we are assured, is written by the winners. But when it comes to American presidential politics, the losers have plenty of say.
Rick Santorum’s exit from the Republican presidential contest this past week cleared the way for Mitt Romney to win the party’s nomination.
But over the course of a low-budget campaign that relied almost entirely on volunteers and was met with disdain by the GOP establishment, Santorum won more than 3 million votes and 11 state primaries — the most by a conservative insurgent candidate since Ronald Reagan challenged President Gerald Ford in 1976.
Santorum has been denounced as a sore loser, a religious extremist, a crank. MSNBC host Martin Bashir referred to him as a theocratic version of Stalin. One columnist alleged in the Daily Beast that Santorum would use the power of the presidency to impose “his ideal of a Christian America” on the nation. The New Yorker compared him to Islamic extremists who seek to execute their opponents, adding that we need separation of church and state so that “Santorum and his party can’t impose dominion of one narrow, sectarian, Bible-based idea of the public good.”
But Santorum and his supporters may have the last laugh. From John C. Fremont to William Jennings Bryan in the 19th century to Barry Goldwater, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern and Ronald Reagan in our time, losing presidential candidates have previewed the ideological trajectory of their parties — and often of the nation.
Romney would be wise to remember this in his general-election campaign. Of course he can’t neglect independents, or women, or Hispanics, or other nontraditional Republican constituencies. But his immediate task is to consolidate conservative support and unify the party. The best way to do....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Lessee if the haters can refrain from further alienating Santorum supporters.
Even the devil can quote scripture. Doesn’t mean I’ll vote for him.
“But his immediate task is to consolidate conservative support and unify the party.”
Yawn....
I worked for President Reagan. Neither Senator Santorum nor Governor Romney are fit to shine his shoes. If Gov. Romney had any feeling at all for the mood of this country, he would’ve already named Governor Sarah Palin, Rep. Allen West or Rep. Duncan Hunter as his running mate. Or better yet, turn over the nomination to Gov. Palin and work out a deal where he’d be her treasury or commerce secretary or some such.
So the advice to Mitt is to keep flipping until he gets more supporters??
Yeah, but Romney can do it with a straight face. LOL!
Good one!
I don’t think Mitt is fit for a cabinet post. How about Ambassador to Dubai?
(Ready for the flames). Romney won it. He won it with money, he won it with negative ads. He won it without my support or the support of us on FR. Do we have to go through all of the stages of grief here on FR? Really? Until election day I am stumping hard for all conservative House and Senate races where my support might help. In the meantime, I hope Romney pulls out all of his dirty tricks, negative ads and wads of cash to beat Obama. After the election I will be a vocal supporter of conservative causes. Hopefully I will be yelling at Romney, not screaming at Barry.
Mexico?
Mittens must be “severe” to people other than conservatives?
Hahahahah
My own opinion is Myth isn't a liberal, nor a conservative. His only ideology is a general pro-business pragmatism. He ran for governor as a moderate-liberal, because that's what it took to get elected, and he governed as one because that's what he ran as, and it was politically expedient. Now he's running as a moderate-conservative, and my guess is if he is elected he will govern as one for the same reasons. Probably he'll be similar to G.W. Bush. I'll take that over a neo-Marxist like Obama any day.
This is another one of those all-that-matters-is-the-message stories. The message BS works for the out-of-touch voters but the conservatives usually aren’t the ones that are out of touch. At least I hope that’s finally true.
Well said. Obama must be defeated lest he permanently change SCOTUS and the federal judiciary and the country as well. All the resistance in the world is to no avail if we lost SCOTUS. These are lifetime federal appointments.
I don’t think there is anything Romney can or will do that could get me to vote for him. Now there is a possibility Obama could do something to get me to vote for Romney.
He should also put on some bangle bracelets, gold hoop earrings, a couple of layers of eyelashes...and sit down and channel an Indian spirit guide who will assure us that “the soul of Ronaldus Magnus is here with us...”
That costume and the proper lighting, he could pass for zero’s doctor.
>> Lessee if the haters can refrain from further alienating Santorum supporters.
So Mitt can also dupe Team Santorum? Whatever.
Go Newt!!!
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.