Posted on 04/11/2012 7:27:27 AM PDT by WPaCon
Nate Silver points out that Santorum is effectively blocked from seeking statewide federal office in Pennsylvania which means his future is up in the air:
Mr. Santorum could also look to statewide office in Pennsylvania, but that might require a reasonably long wait. The incumbent governor there, Tom Corbett, is a Republican and is eligible for another term in 2014, so Mr. Santorum would either need to mount a primary challenge or hope that Mr. Corbett retires.
Of Pennsylvania's two incumbent senators, one is a Democrat, Bob Casey, who resoundingly defeated Mr. Santorum in 2006 and who remains fairly popular. Because Mr. Casey is on the ballot again this year and it is too late for Mr. Santorum to challenge him, he would need to wait until 2018 for a rematch. Pennsylvania's other incumbent senator, Pat Toomey, will be up for election in 2016. But Mr. Toomey is a Republican who is relatively young and who is too conservative to be vulnerable to a primary challenge.
Mr. Santorum is himself fairly young at 53, so he will have plenty of time to build up his brand name and evaluate his options. Still, it could easily be that the 2012 nomination campaign will prove to be the high-water mark of his political career.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Or challenge Romney in 2016, if he gets elected.
Whether ot not Obama is re-elected, Conservatives should work hard to get conservative Congressmen and Senators elected and re-elected in 2012.
If Obama manages to win, its critical we do. If Romney is elected, it will act as a check on any leftwards tendencies.
Sounds logical, as well as reasonable. Now, with that realism out of the way, let's also stop helping the Democrats destroy our last hope to undo the damage Obama has done in his first 4 years.
We can keep the pressure up on the GOPE and Romney when he takes office. But going out of our way to not vote, or help the DNC smear our chosen nominee and destroy them, is traitorous by nature. It will serve nothing and believe me, if Obama wins a second term, with what he intends to do without restraint, (Executive orders alone) will destroy what little is left of the Republic.
We cannot afford to take that risk in any form.
It is an outrage that a no-talent changeling can go from being a loser RINO senator to a weeper man phony conservative candidate back to loser and STILL be able to make money as yet another bottom feeding carp in the open sewer known as K Street.
Romney is going to lose.
Denial is pointless.
Oh, I think #13 is quite good.
I’d vote for you for president with a platform like that.
LLS
Why thank you!
How about add Michelle Bachmann as Attorney General, John Bolton as Sec'y of State and our own FReeper Alan West as VP?
How about Herman Cain as Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers?
I like Mark Levin for press-corps White House spokesman, don't you? (imaging "shaddap ya big dope" directed to some CNN ditz!)
I could see Ron Paul as White House grounds keeper and pooper scooper right about now.
FReegards!
I’m sure they will. Just like they did with Sarah Palin . /sarc off
If he were to run for the House, I would see him doing that from Pennsylvania, not Louisiana.
I think he most likely lives in the DC area and is done with politics for a while unless a Senate seat or governorship opens up.
Sounds like a plan!
Defeatists never win.
Don't succumb to defeatism.
FReegards!
Facing facts is not defeatism.
We can play the democrat game of “Believe” all we want but in the end, Romney will still be crushed by Obama.
The simple fact is that this race is already over and for conservatives to support Romney, they have to concede every last thing of any importance to us.
This race is over.
Good answer. Good answer. I like the way you think.
they talk about him running in 2016, but then again, look who he will be up against, especially if Romneys VP runs. Some of the GOP hopefuls for 2012 may run in 2016 and Rick wont even come close to them. He should run for Governor.
Cheer up. FReegards!
Amen
Let's extend this line of thinking a little more.
Assuming Romney becomes the (R) nominee, he will need to coalesce the base. He must do this convincingly for conservatives and Tea Party to get on board full throttle, not just halfheartedly.
How many of us were somewhat enthusiastic about Quayle, but not so much about GHWBush in 1988? How many of us were enthusiastic about Kemp, not so enthusiastic about Dole in 1996? How many of us were only cautiously supportive of GWBush in 2000, but roared when we learned he'd selected Cheney as his VP?
How does he get us on board? Here's a suggestion: run not only with your VP but with your proposed cabinet as well.
Conservatives sometimes have to be reminded that a President is not king. He can't get anything done by dictate. Above all, he must be a quarterback for the team. While a quarterback may sometimes run a ball in to the end zone himself, more often than not he strategically uses the talents of his team mates to move the ball down the field and bring about the win.
I have proposed cabinet and administration roles for persons who were Romney's rivals at some point. These are the skill sets we conservatives wanted applied to to the places of government where they'd be most effective. Instead of rivals let's make them team players. Allow me to modify the list just a little:
Theme: We're gonna stop the run-away spending and the tyranny of debt. We're going to shrink government and this is where it will begin:
Rick Santorum - Sec'y of HHS
Sarah Palin - Sec'y of Energy + Sec'y of Interior (merge these)
Newt Gingrich - Sec'y of Education
Michelle Bachmann - Attorney General
Herman Cain - Sec'y of Commerce and Head of GSA (merge)
John Bolton - Sec'y of State
John Petraeus - Sec'y of Defense
Ron Paul - Head of Federal Reserve (let the audit begin)
Donald Trump - Head Council of Economic Advisers
Paul Ryan - Head of Office of Management and Budget
Joe Arpaio - Head of FBI, and Homeland Security (merge these)
Dick Cheney - Head of CIA
White House spokesman: Mark Levin
And our own FReeper, Allen West, as VP.
Next: Most of these folks are honed primed and stoked from the recent primary debates. They're all sharp. Nationalize the cabinet selection process as much as the Presidential and Congressional elections.
Release every one of these folks back out onto the the campaign trail with an assignment: tackle in an "in your face" way each of these departments - stage a kick-off news conference in front of each one of them. Challenge the office holders to the equivalent of Lincoln-Douglas style debates allowing each Obama appointed office member to defend their record and their (mis)-management of their public trust.
They won't debate, you say? OK, try some new Rules for Conservative Radicals. Stalk them, dog them with cameras, shame them into the arena, watch the cowards avoid the heat, watch for and exploit their mis-steps, create and run ads based on their failures in office and refusal to be made accountable.
While this is distracting the DNCs resources, Romney can land his own punches on Obama in the same way he's managed to blow away all his opposition in the primaries. Use Romney's well funded strike teams to confound opposition at the grass roots, do what they can to discourage and depress Democratic opposition and their voters.
Have Romney's boys sew the seeds of hopelessness and dissension in the Obama ranks, emphasise betrayal and failure of Obama to keep 2008 promises. Undermine, destroy and confound the opposition into a confused, ill-directed mass who find themselves fighting on more than one Alinskyized, freeze-the-target Presidential candidate, and instead spending their resources fighting 10+ personalities "running" for cabinet offices.
Who are the "generals" they have to call into a fight like that?
Romney and Netanyahu both began strategic business careers at Boston Consulting Group. Agree with them or disagree with them, but admit that they are patient, long range, strategic thinkers.
One of the things Romney has been able to do in large part is to keep his persona distanced from the decisively well-calculated positioning of opposition to rivals in the primaries. His name-less, face-less cloaked "hit-men" are as effective as any guerrilla force out there, but all that activity is maintained at a plausibly deniable, comfortable, arms-length distance from Romney the candidate. I dare say it puts the likes of Nixon's and Clinton's "opposition research" squads to shame.
I can see that machine going to work on Obama and leaving more than just a few lumps.
But if he's what we've got let's hold his feet to the fire and make our will known as conservatives. If he's smart he'll seek our trust, and appoint many of our cabinet choices. To secure our trust he's going to have to both earn it and maintain it.
He'll go a long and convincing way to doing that by arming, deputizing, and funding the campaign efforts of his "cabinet-in-waiting."
FReegards!
Sounds like a good tact to me if Romney really wants to win.
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