Posted on 02/13/2012 12:25:40 PM PST by Bobbisox
A couple of polls came out from Public Policy Polling this weekend showing that Santorum seems to be replacing Newt Gingrich as the main "not Romney" candidate in Minnesota and Colorado. There seems to be a desire to "give another conservative a chance" as well as to potentially field a candidate without as much baggage as Newt so that Mitt Romney's negative ad carpet bombing will not be as effective.
I think though that this reasoning is fallacious and switching support from Newt to Santorum at this point would be a major mistake. Let's just look at what I believe are the two main arguments for the switch:
(Excerpt) Read more at politijim.com ...
LOL. I share your sense of skepticism here.
Noot teeth gnashing at its worst. Go Rick Go!
Then you agree, he needs to be vetted.
Santorum is a good man, but he has no chance of beating Obama. Lost his home state by 18 points last time around, and about as charismatic as a tree stump. If he is the nominee we will lose in a landslide. Since Rick is basically only known for social issues, the media wouldn’t ever let it go - and Santorum wouldn’t be able to resist going back to those familiar themes over and over again anyway. We’d be talking about whether women should submit, what that means exactly, whether married women with kids can work, etc. All important stuff, but not a winner in an election that should be about Obama’s horrendous stewardship of the economy. I’d gladly support Santorum, but I know he wouldn’t win. I still think Newt is the only real alternative. Gingrich would be a hail mary, but at least he’d have a chance.
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 anti-personnel landmines.
Voted against increasing defense spending offset by equivalent cuts in non-defense spending.
Voted to require that Federal bureaucrats get the same pay raises as uniformed military.
Voted to allow food and medicine sales to state sponsors of terror and tyrannical 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 repeal 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 representatives 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 pay raise.
Voted to impose a uniform Federal mandate on states to force them to allow convicted rapists, 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 the earnings of their sponsors.
Voted against hiring an additional 1,000 border patrol 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 a 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 allowing 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.
Right before the voting began, Rush gave him a big boost. He does it every time before a vote starts. I think I see what is happening. Sarah likes Newt.
I’ll see who’s left on March 6 when I get to vote in the Primary. I’m pretty much thinking that it will be settled by then...
Santorum has voted against everything we’re for, and for everything we’re against, except for abortion..
I suspect that you’re correct.
Prove it. Post it here so I don't have to give his blog a ¢lick-thru hit.
>> “Voted for a Schumer amendment to make the debts of pro-life demonstrators not dischargeable in bankruptcy.” <<
.
Reasonable people question whether Santorum is really Pro Life.
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Obviously we have no way of knowing but odds are that Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney would've voted somewhere between 99 and 100% the same way as Santorum.
The key to this election will be to get as many Tea Partiers as possible elected to Congress.
"I have a feeling that she has some demands on her time, and a lot of them have financial benefit attached to them," Santorum, who will be at CPAC, told conservative commentator S.E. Cupp.
Further, Santorum then noted that Palin likely had "other business opportunities," seemingly implying that the former Alaska governor's standard $100,000 speaking fees for her "prior obligations" were more important to her.
Sarah was asked to respond. From an ABC article: Palin, who declined a chance to deliver the closing-night keynote speech at the convention, responded to Santorum in an Fox News interview Wednesday night. “I will not call him the knuckle dragging Neanderthal that perhaps others would want to call him,” Palin said of Santorum, “I’ll let his wife call him that instead" I hope Sarah doesn't forget this petty man.
Rick's supporters will NOT read anything negative about him. I wonder why. I read Rick's platform, I researched his position on the 2nd Amendment (horrible). I sincerely wish people would go back and look at Rick's pronouncements over the past 18 months. There is no overriding concern about the horrible fiscal mess we are in. He seems obsessed with "purifying" our Republic and not at all concerned with government as inherently evil. Rick does not have a view our Founders had -- that government is inherently evil.
Rick recently has been moving to parrot a lot of what Newt's being speaking about. Newt's platform is very specific. Rick's recently has changed some things to reflect more "fiscal concern"
He is a social conservative and at most a fiscal moderate.
Great speller there yourself. I am not wrong, it is just my opinion. No need to get nasty!
At least neither one of them is Myth.
Exactly....I really think we have a case of collective amnesia around here.
Never have I seen Freepers as a whole so *severely* wrong about someone, namely Santorum. If this guy wins the nomination, we’ll all be cheering for him every day. He’s as good as America is going to see in my lifetime. There are some I would prefer, notably Palin, but he’s right up there with the best we have, lest the Shumers of the world would not despise him so. Bob
“Romney is a liberal. Romney will not under any circumstances beat Obama.”
Romney is not a liberal as to his current positions. You do not have to trust him but he is not currently a liberal.
Whoever is nominated I hope they beat Obama.
Sometimes it seems people think there’s a switch somewhere, and that we are all fighting about it, and then someone goes and throws it, and then Santorum is up and Gingrich is down. And we debate whether we should throw that switch or not, as if our debate will decide what happens next.
There is a nation of voters out there. Those voters, millions of them, get their information from many sources. They evaluate based on many different criteria. And if they are polled, we get a snapshot of what they are thinking.
It seems that right now, they are thinking they like Santorum more than Gingrich. That’s not because someone here told them to. Maybe they were turned off by the Romney/Gingrich fight. Maybe they are just lemmings who see Santorum winning 3 states and think “I want to say I support the winner (of course, that begs the question of how Santorum won the three states, but whatever).
Maybe in 2 weeks Gingrich will be on top again; if so, it won’t be because of 10 old stories a day attacking Santorum here. It will be because somehow, Newt got a message out that again caught the attention of the millions of voters.
And if so, that would be great, right? For many, the objection to Gingrich is that he can’t get and hold the support of voters. The polls and recent election results suggest that was a valid objection, but if he rises again, that removes the objection, right?
Same with Santorum — the objection that he can’t get support once people “know” about him will work itself out one way or another. Those whose fear is electability will have their worries assuaged, or else confirmed.
IN any case, the term “would be a mistake” is kind of moot — it is already happening, so maybe “is a mistake” but not “would be a mistake”.
Exactly. Having a socialist like Bush as President made it extremely difficult for anyone to roll up a sterling voting record during those years.
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