Posted on 02/22/2012 9:59:41 AM PST by SeekAndFind
"Rick Santorum was a sitting senator who, in re-election, lost by 19 points," Donald Trump, a Mitt Romney supporter, said recently. "Then he goes out and says, 'Oh, OK, I just lost by the biggest margin in history, now I'm going to run for president.' Tell me, how does that work?"
Why? Santorum explains it mostly by saying '06 was a terrible year for Republicans. Indeed, the GOP, in the sixth year of George W. Bush's time in office, did lose control of both the House and Senate. But why did Santorum lose so badly?
The biggest policy reason was Santorum's outspoken support for the war in Iraq. By November 2006, the war was going badly and threatened to turn into a full-scale catastrophe. President Bush resisted calls to change course. While Santorum's Democratic opponent, Bob Casey, called for a new policy, Santorum stuck with the president, and with the war. He even made it his primary focus in the last days of the campaign.
The voters clobbered him for it. In Pennsylvania exit polls, 61 percent of voters said they disapproved of the war. Santorum lost among them, 15 percent to Casey's 85 percent. Among the largest subgroup of war opponents, the 42 percent of voters who said they strongly disapproved of the war, Santorum was routed 93 percent to 7 percent. That by itself was enough to doom any hopes for a third term.
Santorum didn't lose just because of the war. The economy was also an issue in Pennsylvania in 2006, and Santorum lost 66 percent to 34 percent among voters to whom the economy was a critical issue. Santorum even ran disappointingly on values issues, his usual strength, splitting the vote 50-50 among those who said values were extremely important.
But it wasn't all issues. Santorum also made personal decisions that came back to haunt him in 2006. For example, even though he owned a modest home in Pennsylvania, he moved his family to a much nicer house in Virginia, leading to charges not only that he had abandoned his home state but also that he had gone native in Washington.
In Virginia, Santorum kept his home-schooled children in a program run by the Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. That cost Pennsylvania taxpayers thousands of dollars a year, and some of Santorum's political opponents demanded that he reimburse the state. "Just pay the money back," Casey said to Santorum in one debate. "You ripped off the taxpayers. Pay it back." Santorum declined, and an adjudicator ruled in his favor, but the school issue highlighted the fact that Santorum had left Pennsylvania behind.
Finally, there was Santorum's personality. In the Senate as well as in his home state, Santorum often struck people as arrogant and headstrong, preachy and judgmental. Even today, he sometimes becomes so involved in an argument that he seems intent more on winning the argument than reaching some sort of useful agreement. Throughout his career Santorum has always maintained that his forthrightness means everyone knows where he stands. Sometimes it means people know they don't like him.
Looking back on 2006 in private conversations with friends, Santorum is said to understand that he sometimes came on too strong for the voters' comfort. The question for today is how much he has changed. There's no doubt he still struggles a bit with the Old Rick: He often seems determined to get the upper hand in disputes that he probably shouldn't be having in the first place.
The reasons for Santorum's defeat are too complicated for a 30-second ad or a brief answer at a debate. He can blame a lot of factors, but in the end he was most responsible for his own fate. Now, if Santorum's presidential campaign continues to soar, he'll likely have to discuss the '06 defeat more. The Romney campaign will point to it as proof that Santorum can't win the White House. Santorum's job is to tell voters -- and prove to them with his actions -- that he has learned from his loss, and that he's a better candidate for it.
Why did Rick lose in 2006? That’s EASY, George W. Bush AND Arlen Spector.
Someone posted at the Townhall site, which would be informative to those on this site as well:
Rick Santorum’s Wife: Rick “Loves” Gays.
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/rick-santorums-wife-rick-loves-gays/politics/2012/01/17/33307
A gay man served as a top-level senior aide to Senator Rick Santorum for ten years. That the virulently anti-gay Santorum — who has also this week taken heat for remarks that appeared to be racist — would hire a gay man who also happens to be black no doubt will leave many Americans scratching their heads.
Yep, you got that right.
Santorum supported the RINO pro-abortion Arlen Specter and sold pro-life conservative Pat Toomey down the river; Specter’s vote gave us Obama care. PA conservatives were disillusioned by this and stayed home. That is the real reason he lost. We will not forget.
What isn't the truth about what Rick I said if people really knew what is going on they would all agree with him..Satan has his demons in the white house with his top devil Soros calling the shots..Obama the pea brain has Soros for a mentor and sits back and takes vacations while the devil is trashing America..Pay attention to what has been and is going on..We sure do not want Obamas handy man(Romney) that is paving the way for Obama to get reelected..
What isn't the truth about what Rick I said if people really knew what is going on they would all agree with him..Satan has his demons in the white house with his top devil Soros calling the shots..Obama the pea brain has Soros for a mentor and sits back and takes vacations while the devil is trashing America..Pay attention to what has been and is going on..We sure do not want Obamas handy man(Romney) that is paving the way for Obama to get reelected..
A better question for Donald is why did Willard lose his run for the senate in '94, which was a great year for Republicans?
RE: Well we’re gonna get shellacked with Potsie at the top of the ticket.
Who’s Potsie?
I think this particular, personal friendship and employee situation HELPS Santorum.
Trump. Go back to firing people on tv.
And the conservative base's lack of enthusiasm for Rick is somehow supposed to change just because he is for now anyway the candidate du jour?
I think he’s referring to ‘Happy Days’ television character.
Santorum lost, in no small part, to election fraud.
I saw, with my own eyes, an electronic voting machine cast a Casey vote when the straight Republican ticket was selected. I brought over the judge of elections over and showed it to her. We went through it five times. Finally we had to vote individual selections to get it to accept the Santorum input.
Several hundred machines in the same county wouldn’t start on election day, because the machine thought the vote had been conducted already - I guess there was a hash sum designed to protect it. When whoever it was tampered with the machines, I think they upset the hash sum in a lot of them and locked the machines out. The county tried to blame it on the vendor and the whole thing disapeared in a day. This precinct was an “R” stronghold in an otherwise 2 or 3 to 1 “D” county.
I called Santorum’s campaign office immediately, imploring them to get an injunction and said I would be available for an immediate deposition. I waited all day and the campaign never called back. Suit yerself Rick.
I remember that. One question for Santorum. Did his aide do a good job working in the office? If so, what’s the big deal? I may not agree with someone’s private life, but if they are good at their jobs, I’m not going to fire him. I don’t ask a potential employee if he’s a homo. That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Well now I thought the "blame Bush" talking point was owned by the Democrates and Liberals? So No deal....Santorum lost because of the decisions HE made...the ways in which HE framed his talking points...and HIS temperment....all of which and more caused HIS loss and dramatically so. That's the bottom line here....
There are a few more factors Byron probably didn't have time for, starting with possible Philly vote fraud.
Santorum even ran disappointingly on values issues, his usual strength, splitting the vote 50-50 among those who said values were extremely important.
. . . And the fact that no one knew anything about pro-life socialist Gov. Bob Casey's son—who, it turned out after the election, is not only a dim-bulb socialist like his dad, but is willing to vote pro-abortion.
I totally don’t understand what point you are trying to make here.
“Santorum lost because of the decisions HE made” yep like listening to Bush!
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