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Bernie Goldberg: Time to Go, Rick
BernardGoldberg.com ^ | March 23, 2012 | Bernard Goldberg

Posted on 03/23/2012 10:12:57 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

It’s time for Rick Santorum to go. He’s getting more whiny than usual and it’s getting tiresome.

Like Newt Gingrich, he’s not going to win the nomination, and I suspect he knows it. But I get the impression that he doesn’t really care who wins in November – unless it’s him.

Where did I get an idea like that? From Rick Santorum himself.

On the campaign trail in San Antonio, he said: “You win by giving people a choice,” You win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who’s just going to be a little different than the person in there.”

He’s got every right to take a shot at Mitt Romney. And he’s got every right to believe he’s stands a better chance of defeating President Obama than does Romney, even if he’s wrong. But what he said next was just plain petulant.

“If they’re going to be a little different,” he said, “we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk of what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate for the future.” That was a reference to a Romney adviser’s comment that “everything changes” when the campaign begins in earnest in the fall. “It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch,” the adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said. “You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again.”

Usually the politically dumb statements come from Romney himself. Does this gaffe feed into the image that Romney is a waffler who will say anything that serves his political purposes at the moment? Yes. It’s Romney’s biggest weakness and for good reason: he is a waffler. But Santorum went way too far in saying Romney is no better than President Obama, prompting this entirely accurate headline in the Washington Post: Santorum says voters might as well re-elect Obama because Romney offers little difference

(Hit with a barrage of criticism from Republicans for his comment, Santorum now says the “we” in “we might as well stay with what we have …” refers to “we, the American people” — the American electorate — who he says would figure, why not stay with President Obama if Romney is the GOP nominee. ”I would never vote for Barack Obama over any Republican and to suggest otherwise is preposterous,” Santorum explained. This is how politicians walk back their mistakes. I suspect no one will buy it.)

I could never picture Rick Santorum in the Oval Office. He always struck me as the annoying goody two shoes kid in high school who you wanted to slap around simply on principle. Then when he began sharing his religious beliefs with the American people I started believing that if this guy could snap his fingers or wave his magic wand, he’d turn the United States into a theocracy. That may not be a fair characterization, of course, but that’s the impression he gave me – and I suspect it’s the impression he gave a lot of others who will decide if Mr. Obama stays or goes.

Those of us who want Barack Obama to go should now also want Mr. Santorum to go.


TOPICS: Campaign News; Parties; Polls
KEYWORDS: newt; obama; romney; santorum
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1 posted on 03/23/2012 10:13:06 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is called “fig-leaf” reasoning to bolster support for Romney’s candidacy. You take a comment with a ring of careless ambiguity made during a hectic campaign schedule that the mainstream media pounces on as providing support for Obama (a construction that Santorum and all know is “absurd”) and then use it as cover to provide a rationale for why Santorum should quit. This too is absurd.


2 posted on 03/23/2012 10:22:15 PM PDT by Steelfish (ui)
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To: Steelfish

You might be able to spin a lot of Ricky’s earlier gaffes and mis-statements, but this one is going to be difficult to scrape off of your collective shoes.


3 posted on 03/23/2012 10:29:44 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Ich habe keinen Konig aber Gott)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

How can people vote for Romney after the videos have come out that he’s not a Republican from 2002?


4 posted on 03/23/2012 10:30:57 PM PDT by Politics4US
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

You’d be a good recruit for MoveOn.org


5 posted on 03/23/2012 10:31:04 PM PDT by Steelfish (ui)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
WRONG!

Wait until you figure out Romney.
If we nominate Romney, Romney will lose.
On another thread, WhiskeyX's analysis is very good on



Very well described!
Maybe it's time we got some DINOs to copy this evil plan against Democrats.
But who would soil their name and credibility, to do such an evil thing against the real evildoers? "


6 posted on 03/23/2012 10:32:35 PM PDT by Yosemitest (It's simple, fight or die!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Santorum will soon reach a point when it will be impossible for him to reach 1144 delegates.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/introducing-the-romney-magic-numbers-calculator/

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2863157/posts


7 posted on 03/23/2012 10:33:40 PM PDT by entropy12 (Every tax payer now owes $150,000 towards the national debt. We are worse than broke.)
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To: Steelfish
I agree 100%...and I don't like Romney. I'm just plain sick of Rick, who has no more experience than Obama and shouldn't have run for POTUS to begin with, IMO!

"Goody two shoes"...is an accurate description of RC...I have said "holier than thou." I like "goody two shoes" better but haven't heard it years. It fits.

8 posted on 03/23/2012 10:34:13 PM PDT by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: entropy12

The point is not that he, or Newt, who I support, can win 1144 delegates before the convention, the point is for them both to stay in and together deny Romney the 1144.

If either drops out, some percentage of their votes will go to Romney, so best they both stay in.


9 posted on 03/23/2012 10:36:12 PM PDT by moonhawk (Rush, Mark, Sean: Conservative talkers. Sarah, Newt: Conservative DOers. Mitt: Conservative faker)
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To: moonhawk

I agree completely. I want both Newt & Rick to stay. I am simply stating the reality of the situation that Rick can not get 1144 delegates.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/how-daunting-is-santorums-delegate-math/


10 posted on 03/23/2012 10:39:09 PM PDT by entropy12 (Every tax payer now owes $150,000 towards the national debt. We are worse than broke.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Rick gets out you vote for Newt. Bye bye Romney AND Obama.


11 posted on 03/23/2012 10:43:17 PM PDT by ReneeLynn (Socialism is SO yesterday. Fascism, it's the new black. Mmm mmm mmm...)
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To: lonestar

Oh, is is that why Santorum leads Obama in the recent USA Gallup while Romney is behind Obama and Gingrich trails so far behind that Obama loses him in the rear view mirror. When would the Newties realize that their “permanent lunar-colonies within 8-years” guy has bitten the dust?


12 posted on 03/23/2012 10:44:15 PM PDT by Steelfish (ui)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is being misinterpreted, especially by the pro-Romney crowd, which is desperately grasping at any straw to erase the Etch-a-Sketch remarks.

Romney is too much like Obama — that Mitt is a RINO whose record looks like that of Obama and thus, you can choose either one and get essentially the same thing.

You might remember that Mittens voted for Tsongas.

Romney has said that he is for a national health mandate (Obamacare), even though he is denying that right now. You can find him saying that he is for a mandate on a NATIONAL level, on Youtube.

*Romney ran as a PRO-CHOICE candidate for Governor

*Romney supported Cap and Trade

*Romney supports a national healthcare mandate and is the creator of Romneycare (the blueprint for Obamacare)

*Romney helped give Massachusetts gay marriage

*Romney believes in man-made global warming

*Romney was for the bail outs


13 posted on 03/23/2012 10:53:44 PM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: Steelfish

Yeah, I’m a far-left hippie liberal. You caught me!


14 posted on 03/23/2012 11:17:11 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Ich habe keinen Konig aber Gott)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Absurdity.

Santorum was pointing out that Obama-Romney is not much of a choice and many independents will opt to go for the more authentic of the two liberals.


15 posted on 03/24/2012 12:40:08 AM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: lonestar

Judge not lest ye be judged. If Rick is serving God and living a clean life, then I suspect statements such as this mean you aren’t. I’m very sure Rick doesn’t think he’s holier than thou, but, I do think he lives as good of life as his core values allow.

At least he has been with the same wife. Can we say that about Newt? No, we can’t. And, I’m not judging Newt, because if he has been forgiven by God, then its none of my business - however, I’m sick of his supporters calling Rick names.


16 posted on 03/24/2012 1:29:16 AM PDT by Catsrus
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To: lonestar

Ever notice how many of Ricky’s most stalwart fans are relatively recent arrivals?


17 posted on 03/24/2012 1:31:47 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Ich habe keinen Konig aber Gott)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Stuff it Goldberg!

Both Rick and Newt need to stay in the race to deny Mitt the opportunity of gaining the nomination outright.


18 posted on 03/24/2012 1:51:54 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
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To: Steelfish; lonestar
Oh, is is that why Santorum leads Obama in the recent USA Gallup while Romney is behind Obama and Gingrich trails so far behind that Obama loses him in the rear view mirror. When would the Newties realize that their “permanent lunar-colonies within 8-years” guy has bitten the dust?

This coming from the coward wanting to concede that Mitt was going to win.
19 posted on 03/24/2012 1:53:51 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
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To: entropy12

Who cares? A brokered convention is the best we can hope for at this point. I don’t want Santorum OR Romney.


20 posted on 03/24/2012 3:40:48 AM PDT by Thunder90 (Romney barely won in OH with a 12-1 money advantage, he can't beat Obama that way.)
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