Santorum suspension could unite GOP at last

Yorker UK ^ | April 14, 2012 | Benjamin Bland

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Just when everyone was settling down for another month (at least) of borderline primary season tedium, it happened. Rick Santorum announced that, after one of the most surprisingly successful primary campaigns in recent memory, he was suspending his run for the Republican nomination to be President of the United States. What was behind this sudden about turn from the conservative who was closest to pushing Mitt Romney for victory? Well it has to be said that the decision seems largely to have been made on personal grounds. With his three year old daughter, Bella, having been hospitalised last week, noted family man Santorum decided to call it a day.

Of course there were political reasons as well, of that there is no doubt. The Santorum team was clearly frustrated with the failure of Newt Gingrich to pull out of the nomination race, a decision which, had it been made by the former Speaker of the House some time ago, could have resulted in Santorum being far closer behind Romney.

Furthermore the Santorum campaign simply could not have continued to compete with Romney financially for much longer. With his huge budget and supportive poll numbers in states like Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania, Romney was making life more and more difficult for Santorum to remain a realistic competitor and no doubt that has taken its toll.

Still, it was a surprising move from a man who, as recently as last week, pledged to remain in the race until one candidate had amassed the delegate count needed for victory.

What is perhaps most interesting about the fallout from this Santorum move is the reaction from the Republican party. At the moment little is clear but this could be just the trigger Republicans have needed to finally get behind Mitt Romney as their candidate for November. Polling has suggested that Santorum supporters will now split between Romney and Gingrich and it is now almost a foregone conclusion that Romney will cruise to victory, especially as he is well ahead of Gingrich in polling in large winner takes all states such as California.

The best thing Newt could do of course would be to drop out but his stubbornness still knows no bounds and as such Santorum’s announcement only prompted him to make a plea for more support from conservatives. Realistically though his campaign must realise that only in their wildest dreams will Gingrich stake a claim to the nomination. His polling simply is not good enough and the amount of states coming up which feature winner takes all delegate allocation figures heavily against him as the Romney team will be able to vastly outspend him in the campaigning stakes.

One candidate who it seems will definitely finish the race alongside Mitt Romney is Ron Paul, the libertarian who has run his campaign to promote an ideal rather than with genuine hopes of victory. Paul could be on the list for potential Vice-President nominees, if so inclined, and so it will be interesting to see what he does when the GOP is forced to eventually put its weight behind Romney as its candidate. How soon that open backing of Romney will be remains an open question but senior party figures must be hoping that attention now finally turns to the fight against Obama and not the fight between Republicans.

[Yorlik803]

Where are all the patriots who put personal comfort aside for the good of the nation? The only people who run for the POtus seem to be only in it for personal gain.

[WashingtonSource]

What does GOP-e stand for? GOP elite?

[CharacterCounts]

IMHO many good people take a look and see what’s in store for them from the GOP-E, DNC and their bootlicking media and simply decide it’s not worth it.

[Agamemnon]

Let's extend this line of thinking a little more.

I was a Perry guy. Keep him as Governor of Texas. He's doing fine right where he is.

Let's extend this line of thinking a little more. Assuming Romney becomes the (R) nominee, he will need to coalesce the base. He must do this convincingly for conservatives and Tea Party to get on board full throttle, not just halfheartedly.

How many of us were enthusiastic about Reagan in 1980 but thought the "Rockefeller Wing" was going to sabotage our chances when he selected GHWBush as his VP? How many of us were somewhat enthusiastic about Quayle, but not so much about GHWBush in 1988? How many of us were enthusiastic about Kemp, not so enthusiastic about Dole in 1996? How many of us were only cautiously supportive of GWBush in 2000, but roared when we learned he'd selected Cheney as his VP?

How does he get us on board? Here's a suggestion:

Run not only with your VP but with your proposed cabinet as well.

Conservatives sometimes have to be reminded that a President is not king. He can't get anything done by dictate. Above all, he must be a quarterback for the team. While a quarterback may sometimes run a ball in to the end zone himself, more often than not he strategically uses the talents of his team mates to move the ball down the field and bring about the win.

Did anyone hear Palin the other night (4/12/2012) on Hannity when asked if she'd consider being Sec'y of Energy? Did you watch her show the following night in place of Greta? Did anyone hear our own FReeper Allen West when interviewed on Hannity (4/11/2012) and asked whether he'd consider being Romney's VP? And BOTH essentially said YES!

Newt has practically conceeded. Are any of these folks any less conservative for facing what are becoming our realities this election cycle?

I have proposed cabinet and administration roles for persons who were Romney's rivals at some point. These are the skill sets we conservatives wanted applied to to the places of government where they'd be most effective. Instead of rivals let's make them team players:

Rick Santorum - Sec'y of HHS

Sarah Palin - Sec'y of Energy + Sec'y of Interior (merge these)

Newt Gingrich - Sec'y of Education

Michelle Bachmann - Attorney General

Herman Cain - Sec'y of Commerce and Head of GSA (merge)

John Bolton - Sec'y of State

John Petraeus - Sec'y of Defense

Ron Paul - Head of Federal Reserve (let the audit begin)

Donald Trump - Head Council of Economic Advisers

Paul Ryan - Head of Office of Management and Budget

Joe Arpaio - Head of FBI, and Homeland Security (merge these)

Dick Cheney - Head of CIA

White House spokesman: Mark Levin

And our own FReeper, Allen West, as VP.

Next: Most of these folks are honed primed and stoked from the recent primary debates. They're all sharp. Nationalize the cabinet selection process as much as the Presidential and Congressional elections.

Release every one of these folks back out onto the the campaign trail with an assignment: tackle in an "in your face" way each of these departments - stage a kick-off news conference in front of each one of them. Challenge the office holders to the equivalent of Lincoln-Douglas style debates allowing each Obama appointed office member to defend their record and their (mis)-management of their public trust.

They won't debate, you say? OK, try some new Rules for Conservative Radicals. Stalk them, dog them with cameras, shame them into the arena, watch the cowards avoid the heat, watch for and exploit their mis-steps, create and run ads based on their failures in office and refusal to be made accountable.

While this is distracting the DNCs resources, Romney can land his own punches on Obama in the same way he's managed to blow away all his opposition in the primaries. Use Romney's well funded strike teams to confound opposition at the grass roots, do what they can to discourage and depress Democratic opposition and their voters.

Face it: if Romney was able to take out his competitors in the primary don't you suppose Obama's hacks could have taken anyone of them out in the general?

Have Romney's boys sew the seeds of hopelessness and dissension in the Obama ranks, emphasise betrayal and failure of Obama to keep 2008 promises. Undermine, destroy and confound the opposition into a confused, ill-directed mass who find themselves fighting on more than one Alinskyized, freeze-the-target Presidential candidate, and instead spending their resources fighting 10+ personalities "running" for cabinet offices.

Who are the "generals" they have to call into a fight like that?

Instead of dividing us with all the endless sniping, let's quit doing the DNC's work for them and work on dividing THEM for a change!

Romney and Netanyahu both began strategic business careers at Boston Consulting Group. Agree with them or disagree with them, but admit that they are patient, long range, strategic thinkers.

One of the things Romney has been able to do in large part is to keep his persona distanced from the decisively well-calculated positioning of opposition to rivals in the primaries. His name-less, face-less cloaked "hit-men" are as effective as any guerrilla force out there, but all that activity is maintained at a plausibly deniable, comfortable, arms-length distance from Romney the candidate. I dare say it puts the likes of Nixon's and Clinton's "opposition research" squads to shame.

Sorry George. Enough of the "kinder-gentler" crap. Tight formations, and "gentlemen's wars" provided the fixed targets that let us destroy the Brtis in our War of Independence.

I can see that machine going to work on Obama and leaving more than just a few lumps. Let's turn the "talents" of Romney's henchmen on to Obama, keep them disciplined, focused, and this side of doing any thing "Watergate," and let them go for the DNC's juggular.

If he's what we've got to work with this time around let's face that fact head on and let's hold his feet to the fire and make our will known as conservatives. If he's smart he'll seek our trust, and appoint many of our cabinet choices. To secure our trust he's going to have to both earn it and maintain it.

He'll go a long and convincing way to doing that by arming, deputizing, and funding the campaign efforts of his "cabinet-in-waiting."

FReegards!

[exit82]

Newt’s so-called baggage is a carry-on bag compared to Romney’s entire matched set of Louis Viutton luggage.

Romney is the poinnacle of the GOP’s self destructive and anti-conservative bent.

McCain in 2008 just did not do enough damage to the GOP, so let’s go with Romney because Newt has “baggage”.

Romney isn’t even a Republican. He has disavowed any principle conservatives hold dear.

I’ll vote for the “imperfect” Newt, and I’ll offer to carry his “baggage” any day. At least the man loves America.

[Rome2000]

Paul could be on the list for potential Vice-President nominees

What planet is the author from?

Kolob?

[cripplecreek]

Unfortunately its not just politicians. Too many conservatives are unwilling to forego their current comforts to take a real stand for what’s right.

My congressman told me that the tea party came out in force to elect him, then they went home and he hasn’t heard a peep out of us since.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

To date, Mitt and his Super-PAC have spent about $100 Million to carpet bomb the airways with lies against their opponents — the conservatives. He may be the man the GOP-E likes but he is not an attractive nominee to me. We are still holding a primary and I vote for Newt.

[exit82]

Please stop doing the Romney’s campaign’s work for them on Free Republic.

I am not interested in Romney nor in getting him elected.

To anything.

There is one conservative left standing and that is NEwt Gingrich, who is head and shoulders above Romney.

Romney doesn;t have a conservative bone in his body, nor, from his record, a Republican one.

He lies above being “severely conservative”, when he record is the polar opposite; then his campaign folks say his positions are like the designs on an Etch-A-Sketch.

My primary is 4/24, and I am voting for Gingrich. I want to send Newt to Tampa to stop the self destructive madness Romney represents in the GOP.

[kindred]

Seems the GOP rinos win again by splitting the vote in the primaries and allowing crossover voting so that their handpicked liberal demrino Romney can win the so called conservative nomination. What a joke it is.
I believe that conservatives must start a new conservative third party rather than continue to try to rebuld the corrupted rino GOP party, a useless endeavor at best and the road to serfdom at worst.
A barrel of rotten apples must be disposed of, the barrel burnt and a new barrel and new apples put in lest the old barrel corrupt the new apples, which represent DC politicians for those who continue to try to vainly rebuild a corrupt GOP.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

What does GOP-e stand for? GOP elite?

I use it for Establishment but Elite is used too.

[jettester]

I think Santorum was a RINO foil to Newt. Rick played the Catholic card well enough against Newt to give Mittens enough room through his war chest to make it about “only Mitt has a chance to pull it out now.”. Rick has already publicly stated he was a “team player” once - why does it surprise anyone that he wouldn't do it again? Remember when Newt was asking him to step down when Newt had the momentum after the debates?

[ThePatriotsFlag]

It unites the GOPE with the GOPE. I’m a Tea Party guy, there’s no “uniting” for me!

[RedMDer]

Click

[Psalm 144]

“What does GOP-e stand for? GOP elite?”

GOP establisment. Could just as easily be GOP elite.

I prefer to call them the nomenklatura as that also connotes the mediocrity and hereditary nature of that group.

[Essie]

This isn’t about Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry or any other of the candidates. This about the future of this country. When I first researched Barack Obama, I was quickly able to find out that he was a Marxist whose cores values were totally foreign to American values. In less than three years, he has wrecked havoc on almost every aspect of this society. He is sitting there smiling when he sees the opposition in disunity. As time has passed, I have become more and more afraid as I see his people micromanage farm life, energy use, what we eat, etc. With each regulation, this country becomes less functional. If he gets a second term, this country will slowly grind to a halt under the weight of his government’s excessive meddling in every aspect of our lives.

[maryz]

I believe that conservatives must start a new conservative third party rather than continue to try to rebuld the corrupted rino GOP party

I think you're absolutely right. As far as I can tell, there has always been an alliance in the GOP between the Wall Street (Rockefeller, Northeast) branch and Main Street. Their interests were often enough close enough to keep the whole together. I think it was basically Roe v. Wade that started the split; that was the beginning of "social issues" becoming political issues. And the Rockefeller wing was never anti-abortion -- see Gerald Ford, pro-abort, though not in the wild-eyed NARAL sense; it seemed as if he just honestly couldn't see what the fuss was about.

[maryz]

Your cabinet choices sound great . . . most unlikely they'd be Mitt's choices. I'm in MA, and the one thing I recall Mitt being really firm and insistent on is that he would not have one Jim Rappaport (the party's choice) as his lt.gov. Someone who follows local politics more closely than I said it was because Rappaport would not have been a lapdog for Mitt. So Mitt found an unknown who would be just that.

[Agamemnon]

I am absoutely on board with everybody still intending to vote for Newt in their primaries to do so.

It's an essential part of holding Romney's feet to the fire, and keeping him on notice that our loyalty to the GOP will have to be earned DAILY. Our support has to be earned, it is not a given and the Tea Party is a force to be reckoned with, not just another constituency to pay lip service to.

Newt has expressed and to a certain degree acknowedged the fact that for him reality is setting in. What do supporters say when he's $4.5 MM in debt, his chief Las Vegas backer has quit writing him checks, he's bouncing $500 election filing checks in places like Utah and failing to file to run in conservative bastions like VA where he'd actually have a fighting chance?

From FoxNews Sunday as reported by World Net Daily:

ELECTION 2012

Gingrich: Mitt Romney likely nominee

Newt acknowledges his campaign is 'operating on a shoestring' Published: 6 days ago

(FOX NEWS) — Newt Gingrich acknowledged Sunday that his campaign is “operating on a shoestring,” as he signaled he is preparing to transition from candidate to surrogate in anticipation of Mitt Romney winning the nomination.

While not throwing in the towel just yet, the former House speaker spoke frequently in past tense about his presidential bid in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” He said he wants to continue to try and influence the party platform, but said he’s already discussed with the Republican National Committee how he can best help the nominee defeat President Obama if it’s not him.

Reality is starting to set in and I am not championing Romney. I am championing what could be the best places where we expected our primary favorites to have the most impact: where conservative policy actually becomes reality, not just a platform plank.

If conservative will is going to win the operational contest it must be at the cabinet appointment level. We win the cabinet by winning the the big contest. There is no other way to do it. We have to win as a team.

"We hang together or we hang separately."

FReegards!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

You may not be championing Mitt but you are doing your best to diminish Newt.