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Why it should be Obama vs. Santorum
Durham News Observer ^ | 02/12/12 | Kyle Scott

Posted on 02/12/2012 6:30:58 PM PST by writer33

DURHAM -- Mitt Romney was the inevitable nominee - until he wasn't.

In order to sustain a lead, a candidate's message must resonate with the heart and the mind. Romney's cakewalk to the Republican presidential nomination has been stymied by the inability to get anyone excited about his campaign. He has supporters, but not believers.

Rick Santorum's message resonates with voters' hearts and minds, lately at least, because he is a true believer. He believes in his message and his message is consistent with core Republican values. What gave Santorum the edge in Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri last week can give him an edge in the general election against President Barack Obama.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: obama; santorum
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1 posted on 02/12/2012 6:31:01 PM PST by writer33
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To: Clint N. Suhks; American Constitutionalist; Antoninus; Colonel_Flagg; cripplecreek; ...

For those interested.


2 posted on 02/12/2012 6:32:17 PM PST by writer33 (Mark Levin Is The Constitutional Engine Of Conservatism)
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To: writer33
He has supporters, but not believers.
Other than Mormonism and RomneyCare, what does Willard himself believe in? I haven't got a clue.

Go Mitt! Go straight to hell.
3 posted on 02/12/2012 6:34:40 PM PST by Timaeus (Willard Mitt Romney Delenda Est)
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To: writer33
candidate's message

By the way what is Romney's message? "I'm next?"

4 posted on 02/12/2012 6:39:05 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: writer33

True that Santorum is a true believer. But his economic beliefs are very confused. He doesn’t understand capitalism or free enterprise and hence it is difficult to say we are supporting him. We are even more skeptical of Mitt is what it is. And, Santorum is at least better on social issues.


5 posted on 02/12/2012 6:42:26 PM PST by spintreebob
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To: Timaeus
" Other than Mormonism and RomneyCare, what does Willard himself believe in? I haven't got a clue. "

The 4 winds have each a direction ?
6 posted on 02/12/2012 6:49:55 PM PST by American Constitutionalist (The fool has said in his heart, " there is no GOD " ..)
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To: Vince Ferrer
" By the way what is Romney's message? "I'm next?"

More like, " It's all mine " .. Gollum " my precious "
7 posted on 02/12/2012 6:52:00 PM PST by American Constitutionalist (The fool has said in his heart, " there is no GOD " ..)
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To: writer33
Durham, Raleigh there is a lot liberals who live in that area-collegeville. I can't see them supporting a social conservative. maybe a slanted motive to this article.
8 posted on 02/12/2012 6:58:03 PM PST by Christie at the beach
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To: writer33

”Blah! Blah! Blah!!!”

9 posted on 02/12/2012 6:58:09 PM PST by Colonial Warrior (Help us OB/GYN! You are our only hope!)
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To: writer33; All
The author of this article, teaches Poly Sci at Duke U. He's no dummy. This statement, that he made in the article, says it all:
But if Santorum wins the nomination, he and the president will be forced to defend their parties' view of what good government entails and which policies are best for the country. In other words, an Obama-Santorum matchup will focus on things that actually matter.

Thank God....Could we finally have a GOP candidate without a gazillion distractions, who has lived a life above reproach and has no skeletons in an immoral closet and does not have more baggage than a Greyhound bus? HALLELUJAH!!!
10 posted on 02/12/2012 7:03:37 PM PST by no dems (Rick Santorum: The only viable alternative to Obama that we have left.)
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To: spintreebob

The following is from Redstate. (The votes are hot-linked at the source site.) He might be a true believer, but he’s a true believer in big government.

Source: http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/01/06/what-a-big-government-conservative-looks-like/

NEA
Voted for taxpayer funding of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Voted against a 10% cut in the budget for National Endowment for the Arts.

Bankruptcy
Voted for a Schumer amendment to make the debts of pro-life demonstrators not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

Defense and Foreign Policy

Voted for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Voted against requiring the President to certify that the CWC is effectively verifiable.

Voted against requiring the President to certify that that Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, North Korea, China, and all other countries determined to be state sponsors of terror have joined CWC prior to submitting the instrument of ratification.
Voted for the START II Treaty
Voted to allow the sale of supercomputers to China.
Voted to ban antipersonnel landmines
Voted against increasing defense spending offset by equivalent cuts in non-defense spending.
Voted to require that Federal bureaucrats get the same payraises as uniformed military.
Voted to allow food and medicine sales to state sponsors of terror and tyranical regimes such as Libya and Cuba.
Voted to limit the President’s authority to impose sanctions on nations for reasons of national security unless the sanctions were approved by a multilateral regime.
Voted against requiring Congressional authorization for military action in Bosnia.
Voted to give $25 million in foreign aid to North Korea
Voted to weaken alien terrorist deportation provisions. If the Court determines that the evidence must be withheld for national security reasons, the Justice Department must still provide a summary of the evidence sufficient for the alien terrorist to mount a defense against deportation.
Voted against delaying the India Nuclear until the President certified that India had agreed to suspend military-to-military exchanges with Iran.
Voted against the Conventional Trident Missile Program

Nominations
Voted for Richard Paez to the 9th Curcuit (cloture)
Voted for Sonia Sotomayor, Circuit Judge
Voted for Richard Holbrooke to be Ambassador to the UN
Voted for Margaret Morrow to be District Judge
Voted twice for Marsha Berzon to the 9thg Circuit
Voted for Mary McLaughlin to be District Judge
Voted for Tim Dyk to be District Judge
Voted for James Brady to be District Judge

Labor
Voted against National Right to Work Act
Voted against Real of Davis-Bacon Prevailing union wages
Voted for Alexis Herman to be Secretary of Labor
Voted for mandatory Federal child care funding
Voted for Trade Adjustment Assistance.
Voted for Job Corps funding
Voted twice in support of Fedex Unionization
Voted against allowing a waiver of Davis-Bacon in emergency situations.
Voted for minimum wage increases six times here here here here here and here
Voted to require a union representative on an IRS oversight board.
Voted to exempt IRS union representative from criminal ethics laws.
Voted against creating independent Board of Governors to investigate IRS abuses.

Guns

Voted to require pawn shops to do background checks on people who pawn a gun.
Voted twice to make it illegal to sell a gun without a secure storage or safety device
Voted for a Federal ban on possession of “assault weapons” by those under 18.
Voted for Federal funding for anti-gun education programs in schools.
Voted for anti-gun juvenile justice bill.

Reform

Voted for funding for the legal services corporation.
Voted twice for a Congressional payraise.
Voted to impose a uniform Federal mandate on states to force them to allow convicted rapits, arsonists, drug kingpins, and all other ex-convicts to vote in Federal elections.
Voted for the Specter “backup plan” to allow campaign finance reform to survive if portions of the bill were found unconstitutional.
Voted to mandate discounted broadcast times for politicians.
Voted for a McCain amendment to require State and local campaign committees to report all campaign contributions to the FEC and to require all campaign contributions to be reported to the FEC within 24 hours within 90 days of an election.

Immigration
Voted against increasing the number of immigration investigators
Voted to allow illegal immigrants to receive the earned income credit before becoming citizens
Voted to give SSI benefits to legal aliens.
Voted to give welfare benefits to naturalized citizens without regard to to the earnings of their sponsors.
Voted against hiring an additional 1,000 border partrol agents, paid for by reductions in state grants.

Taxes
Voted against a flat tax.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for Medicare prescription drugs
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to fund health insurance subsidies for small businesses.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for an $8 billion increase in child healh insurance.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for an increase in NIH funding.
Voted twice for internet taxes.
Voted to allow gas tax revenues to be used to subsidize Amtrak.
Voted to strike marriage penalty tax relief and instead provide fines on tobacco companies.
Voted against repealing the Clinton 4.3 cent gas tax increase.
Voted to increase taxes by $2.3 billion to pay for an Amtrak trust fund.
Voted to allow welfare to a minor who had a child out of wedlock and who resided with an adult who was on welfare within the previous two years.
Voted to increase taxes by $9.4 billion to pay for a $9.4 billion increase in student loans.
Voted to say that AMT patch is more important than capital gains and dividend relief.

Welfare
Voted against food stamp reform
Voted against Medicaid reform
Voted against TANF reform
Voted to increase the Social Services Block Grant from $1 billion to $2 billion
Voted to increase the FHA loan from $170,000 to $197,000. Also opposed increasing GNMA guaranty from 6 basis points to 12.
Voted for $2 billion for low income heating assistance.

Waste
Sponsored An amendment to increase Amtrak funds by $550 million
Voted to use HUD funds for the Joslyn Art Museum (NE), the Stand Up for Animals project (RI) and the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Project (WA)
Voted to increase spending on social programs by $7 billion
Voted to increase NIH funding by $1.6 billion.
Voted to increase NIHnding by $700 million
Voted to for a $2 million earmark to renovate the Vulcan Monument (AL)
Voted for a $1 billion bailout for the steel industry
Voted against requiring that highway earmarks would come out of a state’s highway allocation
Voted to allow Market Access Program funds to go to foreign companies.
Voted to allow OPIC to increase its administrative costs by 50%
Voted against transferring $20 million from Americorps to veterans.
Voted for the $140 billion asbestos compensation bill.
Voted against requiring a uniform medical criteria to ensure asbestos claims were legitimate.
Voted to increase community development programs by $2 billion.

Spending and Entitlements
Voted to make Medicare part B premium subsidies an new entitlement.
Voted against paying off the debt ($5.6 trillion at the time) within 30 years.
Voted to give $18 billion to the IMF.
Voted to raid Social Security instead of using surpluses to pay down the debt.

Health Care
Voted to allow states to impose health care mandates that are stricter than proposed new Federal mandates, but not weaker.
Voted twice for Federal mental health parity mandates in health insurance.
Voted against a allow consumers the option to purchase a plan outside the parity mandate.

Education
Voted to increase Federal funding for teacher testing
Voted to increase spending for the Department of Education by $3.1 billion.
Voted against requiring courts to consider the impact of IDEA awards on a local school district.

Energy

Voted to allow the President to designate certain sites as interim nuclear waste storage sites in the event that he determines that Yucca Mountain is not a suitable site for a permanent waste repository. Those sites are as follows: the nuclear waste site in Hanford, Washington; the Savannah River Site in South Carolina; Barnwell County, South Carolina; and the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee.
Voted to make fuel price gouging a Federal crime.


11 posted on 02/12/2012 7:04:26 PM PST by coloradan (The US has become a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
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To: American Constitutionalist

what does Willard himself believe in? I haven’t got a clue...
______________________________________________________________
Well, let me help you out here. He believes it’s his turn.


12 posted on 02/12/2012 7:05:03 PM PST by no dems (Rick Santorum: The only viable alternative to Obama that we have left.)
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To: Colonial Warrior

LOL.... That is awesome.


13 posted on 02/12/2012 7:06:26 PM PST by no dems (Rick Santorum: The only viable alternative to Obama that we have left.)
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To: writer33

It’s not that RINORomney doesn’t EXCITE us.
(He doesn’t, by the by.)
We just don’t BELIEVE HIM.
(btw—HE DOESN’T BELIEVE HIM, EITHER.)


14 posted on 02/12/2012 7:06:33 PM PST by Flintlock (Photo ID for ALL VOTING. Let our dead rest in peace.)
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To: coloradan

And yet he won your state. This list just makes me tired all over.


15 posted on 02/12/2012 7:07:58 PM PST by writer33 (Mark Levin Is The Constitutional Engine Of Conservatism)
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To: coloradan

Then don’t vote for him coloradan. That simple.


16 posted on 02/12/2012 7:08:22 PM PST by no dems (Rick Santorum: The only viable alternative to Obama that we have left.)
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To: writer33

My understanding is that Santorum served two terms as a US senator in Pa. and then got blown out with a 19 point margin in 06. I don’t have an easy time believing that anybody can manufacture enough votes to produce a 19-point margin.....


17 posted on 02/12/2012 7:10:30 PM PST by varmintman
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To: spintreebob
Frankly, Romney ought to bow out and let Santorum and Newt duke it out!

Romney is the guy that oughta be kicking himself to the curb in the interest of patriotism. But we keep hearing ... he's the frontrunner...? What's he even doing in the race, since he's a Democrat registered as a Republican?

Godspeed Newt!

18 posted on 02/12/2012 7:11:27 PM PST by Finny ("Raise hell. Vote smart." -- Ted Nugent)
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To: writer33

yes.


19 posted on 02/12/2012 7:12:19 PM PST by MarMema (freedom for Amir)
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To: no dems
... who has lived a life above reproach ...

Gag me with a spoon. Good grief!

20 posted on 02/12/2012 7:13:36 PM PST by Finny ("Raise hell. Vote smart." -- Ted Nugent)
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