It was calculated after the 2008 election 4m+ white conservative voters did not show up at the polls on election day because they did not take to Mccain being a moderate.
With Santorum those folks would show up.
Bottom line our side needs for the white turnout to be in the range of 75.5%-76% of the electorate to win back the WH. With McCain it was 74%.
And we need to win the white vote by more than 20 points.
McCain only won it by 12 points (55% to 43%).
You say that cannot be done. How soon you forget:
2010:
White vote as percentage of the electorate: 77%
Breakdown of vote:
GOP 60%
Dems 37%
Remember that was a wipeout. It can be done again but it takes a conservative to fire up the base.
Romney can’t do it but Santorum can and so can Palin.
Obviously we know Palin can do it from 2008-2010.
As for Santorum when you command the support of 40%-50% of TP supporters, over 40% of your supporters are evangelicals and over 40% are conservatives you must be doing something right. Obviously if these folks don’t show up in Michigan and/or Ohio then Santorum is not as well regarded as I thought. We’ll see on Feb 28 and March 6.
I refuse to vote for a corrupt bastard like Santorum.
We tend to forget all of Santorum’s garbage because of his strong social values, and more importantly, he has had a couple years to buffer himself from his history in Congress and from the old “Coruupt Bastards” group he associated with when he was there.
WE NEED TO REMEMBER Santorum received more campaign funds from lobbyists in 2006 than any other member on The Hill at that time, even more than John Murtha and Tom Delay ever did, met regularly with K Street lobbyists every Tuesday morning as a Senator, loves earmarks for special interests and still defends them today, and believes it is fine to keep collecting federal tax dollars to give to Congress to determine what lobbyist-driven projects the Congress would like to provide funds for back in the states.
Santorum has been crtitical of the TEA Part in the past, but like a true hypocrite has now claimed he is one.
Vote for him? No way!
Off year election not the same. Not even close. Intensity gap has flipped. You paint a rosey picture and say white vote needs 20 points. I would argue it has to be 65 35 to offset minority increases. Think what you will Dems are not staying home as they did at midterms.
I would like to believe you but the reality I see is much different.