If we SPLIT the true Christian Evangelical Conservative vote three ways between Newt, Santorum, and Perry — we simply lose to Willard the Obama-lite Liberal.
Period.
Just in:
South Carolina Republican Presidential Primary Rasmussen
Reports
Gingrich 18, Romney 27, Santorum 24, Paul 11, Perry 5
Romney +3 : (
It’s not rocket science, folks.
With respect to Santorum, his book lays out a case for using government programs and special breaks to help families and other conservative social institutions. He says he will cut the budget but it worries me that his whole emphasis is on social issues and he doesn't really make a case for taking an ax to the size of government. That is why he is not my first choice. I remember how demoralized I was at Bush's spending binge and TARP etc. I can imagine Santorum doing the same thing.
Only RINOs use that phrase to hid their progressive roots.
Sorry folks but we just don’t need another Senator or Speaker of the House or Congresscritter of any kind to occupy the WH. They are all from the same fabric bolt.
The way I remember it, Bush 43 and Rove invented the phrase “Compassionate Conservatism” to differentiate themselves from the Gingrich/Santorum conservatives of the 90’s, who had become unpopular in the late 90’s during impeachment.
Santorum did seem to be on board with most of the Bush agenda, but I don’t recall him ever identifying himself as a “CC”.
I don't see anything in the above reference that makes him look bad. GWB compassionate conservatism meant tax credits for single Moms, home loans for minorities with bad credit and prescript drugs for seniors paid for by the nation's (debts) credit card and NCLB without private school vouchers except in DC.
More troubling is Santorum's past pro-union votes but yet he still looks better than Romney and Newt. I have yet to see any commercials of him with Pelosi demanding that 'our leaders' take action on climate change,
I don’t see Rick Santorum as another Compassionate Conservative. He did vote with the party on a couple of Bush’s really stupid initiatives—prescription drugs for medicare, and No Child Left Behind. But then so did virtually all the other Republicans in office at the time.
Bush said it was necessary for the party to remain popular enough so it could do other things like cut taxes. He was wrong, but I’d blame that on Bush and Rove, not an individual Senator like Santorum who was voting with the party.
As for Ron Paul, he is no conservative. He is completely lacking in moral principles, and he is one of the biggest pork guzzlers in the house, all the while he rants about cutting spending. He is sufficiently UNconservative so he has a lot of young, liberal Democrats voting for him.
Compassionate conservatives want to try to use the One Ring for good, rather than throw it into the fires of Mt. Doom. They should know better.