And until America gets over this intangle, American Idol BS in picking a candidate, we’re screwed. What matters to me are conservative principles and people that not only promote them, but abide by them.
Santorum’s basically the only one left I would personally consider settling on. Originally, I was for Bachmann, and I still admire her greatly despite the amount of negativity she got around here. Then I was a firm supporter of the Cain Train, but as the false accusation continued to amount and people began to label him as stupid for how he handled reporters, they pushed a good man out. That left Santorum and Perry, two of which I could support. But Perry also got the “moron” label applied to him by people of this forum who expect the 2012 Election to be decided by the debates, ultimately forcing him out.
I live in Realville (as Rush puts it, and has also stated the fall debates won’t play as large a role as everyone expects). Newt will disappoint. In fact, not only will he disappoint, but when he strays off the conservative reservation, he will lecture us on why we (the conservatives) are wrong and he is right. Example was this attack on Capitalism that Rush called “indefensible”. Notice, Newt has never backed down off of this attack, he just diverted the subject to another strength (calling for the release of Romney’s tax returns). Whenever he knows he is wrong, he diverts off of it to a strength. Good debate tactic. But the more you get used to it, the more you start to see through it.
It will start with the running mate discussion. I guarantee you 99% an Establishment RINO will be on that ticket. And while I try to say “See I told you so”, people here are already working on defending the choice and comparing it to Reagan’s selection of Bush I. It’s going to happen.
Lastly, because I understand the Election is decided by the Electoral College, I know that essentially any of our nominees has just as much a chance to win the Election. All of them will carry the McCain states from 2008. All of them will most likely carry IN and NC. Each has about the same shot in FL, VA, and OH. That’s 266 Electoral Votes. Add in another toss-up state, and it’s game over. I reject the argument that Newt can only accomplish this and Santorum can’t because I’ve looked at the county by county data for each of these states and will continue to do so as the Election approaches. We had a chance to put a real conservative in, and are laying a major egg.
Perhaps it’s because Santorum thinks he knows what’s better for everybody. That’s not a Conservative trait, it’s a liberal one. Using all the tools the Almighty gives one isn’t American Idol, it’s common sense.