Posted on 01/14/2012 3:31:10 PM PST by TBBT
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- With the South Carolina Republican presidential primary a week away, former Sen. Rick Santorum on Saturday received the endorsement of 150 influential Christian conservative leaders who are hoping to prevent former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney from becoming the GOP nominee.
The group, suspicious that Romney's commitment to social conservative causes such as ending legalized abortion is weak, met at a ranch outside of Houston, Texas, in hopes of rallying around one candidate rather than split their votes among three - Santorum, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
The endorsement came as the Republican presidential field converged on scenic Charleston, S.C., for a televised town hall meeting for undecided voters hosted by Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said in a telephone news conference after the meeting that the conservatives had begun their deliberations with "not a lot of hope that we could reach consensus around one candidate."
But in the end "there emerged a strong consensus around Rick Santorum," Perkins said, after three rounds of balloting.
Santorum, a staunch anti-abortion social conservative, was considered a long-shot candidate before surprising many by losing to Romney in Iowa caucuses Jan. 3 by only eight votes.
Support fluctuated between Santorum and Gingrich, Perkins said, before more than two-thirds voted for the former Pennsylvania senator. In the end, Santorum received 85 votes out of 114 - a smaller total because Perkins said some participants had left to catch flights.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
"Stop Romney".
Ironic isn't it? Their efforts may very well secure a victory for the one one they so desperately want to stop.
I suspect that the Romney camp is loving this.
Santorum doesn't have a prayer at beating Romney.
Apparently Newt is getting 50,000 Christian leaders together: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2833039/posts
Keep on Laughing TBBT.
Keep on laughting. :D
Aww, bless their hearts! Huckabee rides again!
Between the Romney rinos and this desire to support Rick S., Romney will win if this continues. All of the prayers in the world are not going to change the numbers for Rick S.
George Barna (an Evangelical) who runs the Barna research group came out today and supported...Newt Gingrich. He thought Gingrich would be the best candidate to defend Christianity in this era.
This is the first time Barna has ever supported anybody in any race.
I agree. Romney is up in one poll in SC by 21. Santorum is one of the worst candidates they could rallied around.
They aren’t interested in doing anything other than f’ing up like they do almost every election.
Paper tigers always looking to act so righteous while they rum themselves into a wall.
Romney’s best voting bloc.
You’re right...
I’m not too optimistic about the chances of stopping Romney. I don’t see the Rick/Rick clingers loosening their grip. This is mostly likely to play out as it did in 2008. Except this time Romney’s margin of victory will be bigger.
We’ll see next week when fresh polls come out. Possible outcomes...
- Santorum switches places with Newt in the polls but is still well short of beating Romney (best case scenario for Santorum).
- Newt slides, Santorum gains, and the both meet around 20%, well short of what’s needed to beat Romney.
- The polls remain static - leading to Romney win.
- The only chance that Romney looses S.C.: Somehow S.C. realizes the realities of the battle field and move towards Newt. This depends on how big the Anti-Romney sentiment is in S.C. - something that I’m not sure is that large. Being the optimist that I am - this is probably the least likely outcome.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online from January 10-13 with a sample of 995 South Carolina registered voters. It included 398 Republicans and 380 Democrats.That's 380 Democrats and apparently 217 Independents. Republicans make up just 40% of this poll. Is that really representative of how the voting demographic is going to play out in S.C.? With that many Democrats and Independents sampled in this poll, are the results any surprise?
You can have Romine. He’s all yours. When he ends up being Obama 2, remember all your love for the commie homo abortion loving liberal.
Oh heavens. Conservatives actually choosing a conservative!?
How can that be!
Durn them all to heck!
Apparently, despite the oversample, Santorum’s numbers didn’t budge.
Either Santorum’s really got the solid support of the conservatives that did get polled, or Newt is radioactive among independents. ;)
Or maybe the Hillary supporter just dig the sweater-vest. :p
“Santorum switches places with Newt in the polls but is still well short of beating Romney (best case scenario for Santorum).”
He’s winning in NC? Why is that?
Best case scenario - Santorum beats Mitt, Newt beats Mitt, Santorum beats Newt (as in NC), and Mitt finishes third.
“Somehow S.C. realizes the realities of the battle field and move towards Newt”
It’s like taking a quiz. All the answers have the same one. Newt.
I hope that this collective endorsement works. Romney is a Wall Street liberal and Gingrich has too many liabilities to be a strong general election candidate.
GO NEWT!
MY prayers belong to Newt Gingrich!
Split vote = Romney is ccounting on that to stop his feared challenger Newt Gingrich!
GO NEWT!
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