Posted on 04/10/2012 5:26:18 PM PDT by Steelfish
Rick Santorum Was The Most Conservative, Authentic and Resilient Candidate of 2012.
Tim Stanley April 10th
Rick Santorum's struggle touched a chord with many working-class Americans
Rick Santorum said goodbye on Tuesday afternoon. It was a classic performance from the Rickster heartfelt, overlong, a little bitter. He pledged to go on fighting for the little people but acknowledged that the race was over, brought to a close by his daughters illness and poor polling. To most people this means that its now between Romney and Obama. The only minority report on that will come from Newt Gingrich.
You can imagine him happily switching the TV off after Santorums speech and saying, Callista, its in the bag! [Plop! goes the ice into the glass as Callista fixes herself another medicinal Martini. Its going to be a long three months...]
Love him or loathe him, Santorum was the most interesting candidate of this season. Against insurmountable odds (including a false count in Iowa) he won 11 states and more counties that all the other candidates combined. His candidacy marked the entry of mainstream conservative Catholicism into the Republican Party at a national level.
Hes the first serious Catholic Republican contender since Pat Buchanan in 1996 and a lot more serious than that (sorry Pat!). At the root of all his politics was a strict natural law view of the world the concept that nature is an estate of God and it contains within it the template of moral order.
He wasnt half as obsessed with sex as the interviewers who constantly asked him about it, and if theyd dug deeper theyd discovered that it was part of an over-arching philosophy of rights and responsibilities that is at the heart of the Western Catholic tradition. If John Paul II .....
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
As imperfect a conservative as he may have been, at least Santorum had a shot.
Yeah, maybe. But he bailed out. So what's your point?
I understand the policy here against blog pimping, but thought this site allowed articles.
He’s dead, Jim.
Yeah, well Romney is the richest.
I wasn’t bitching about pimping.
My point was that it’s stupid to be lauding Santorum. He’s out.
Cogitating about how he’s the best candidate is stupid now.
He’s gone. Toast. An Ex-Candidate. Pining for the Fjords.
I still believe Sarah leads Rick in all 3 categories but, yes, she was not a “candidate”.
The meanings of political labels shift over time, but if we are using the term “conservative” in its historical context, Santorum is one of the most conservative candidates that we have seen since at least Buchanan (I hope I’m not forgetting anyone obvious,) and probably will see for a long time.
C’mon, surely you’ve been around here long enough to know it’s the hummelgummer’s thing to sit back and take potshots at any and everything.
Well thats useful, too. Thanks.
Couple of days? I was planning on somewhat longer than that.
Where are all the threads by anti-Santorum FReepers who’ve been urging him to quit for the past months? They should be doing the happy dance tonight.
Resilient? Newt’s still in it to win it and Rick dropped out. Doesn’t sound like he’s so resilient to me.
Interesting? Not more interesting than Newt, that’s for sure, who is someone from whom you can learn something new about American history, political history and innovative policy every time you listen to him.
“Mainstream conservative Catholicism” is an oxymoron to anyone who actually knows Catholics.
Blog pimping aside,...I never supported ANY of the GOP candidates. Yet the wizards of smart in Washington have rammed Romney DOWN MY THROAT. I can’t vote for him. Yes, I know Obama is a communist and if elected we are finished. Frankly, the way the world is going, I believe we are ALL finished. Perhaps if ODouchBag is re-elected it will ignite a revolution. If the left can’t be vanquished electorally, well then.............................................
Never in the history of politics (unless you are a Marxist, then Obama is an exception) has there ever been a perfect candidate.
One can view Romney optimistically (I do as far as national defense and some things economic); or one can support Romney out of fear (Obama seems to be aching for some "flexibility" to do a scorched-earth, full-Venezuela on our fine country, and Mitt is relatively not as destructive) and Mitt has a sense of country that Mister Obama does not. (If you want to say that Mitt has a sense of Mitt, okay, no argument, so be it.)
I am Mitt Romney's newest, and most ardent, and least likely supporter.
Contrary opinion invited, my FRiends, we need this (genial and gracious) discussion.
.
Yes, you forgot someone obvious who is far and away more conservative. If you can pass more conservative legislation under a Democrat president than the other guy could under a Republican president, that definitely makes you more conservative.
No one needs to have a genial and gracious discussion with a traitor to the conservative cause, which anyone who supports an economic and cultural leftist like Governor Romney over his more conservative opponent Newt Gingrich is. Get lost.
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