Posted on 03/01/2012 5:18:23 AM PST by VU4G10
Rick Santorum put a lot of chips on Michigan, and he lost. Now the question is whether his chance to prove he is a viable alternative to Mitt Romney has slipped away for good.
Santorum’s loss has raised new questions about his tactics in Michigan in particular, and his vulnerabilities as a candidate more generally.
His team’s decision to make robocalls to registered Democrats asking them to turn out for him on primary day was as divisive as it was ineffective. The tactic left an unpleasant taste in the mouths of many conservatives.
Describing the move as “ill-considered,” Florida Republican strategist Rick Wilson added that many conservatives were “turned off by the whole thing.”
The Romney campaign has continued to try to make hay from the controversy. Wednesday afternoon, his aides organized a conference call in which high-profile surrogates called on Santorum to “stop teaming up with Democrats.”
Wilson and others also point to the number of controversies revolving around social issues in which Santorum became entangled.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Here’s Mittens latest gaffe: Keep it up Rombo!
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Wednesday he opposed Senate Republicans’ effort that critics say would limit insurance coverage of birth control, then reversed himself quickly in a second interview saying he misunderstood the question.
Romney told Ohio News Network during an interview that he opposed a measure by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., that was scheduled for a vote Thursday. “I’m not for the bill,” Romney said before urging the interviewer to move on.
Romney later said he didn’t understand the question.
“Of course I support the Blunt amendment. I thought he was talking about some state law that prevented people from getting contraception so I was simply — misunderstood the question and of course I support the Blunt amendment,” Romney later told Howie Carr’s radio program in Boston, noting that Blunt is his campaign’s point man in the Senate.
It’s pure propaganda.. don’t let them get you down.
History will favor Rick Santorum in this, he will come out the winner in all of this.
The voters don’t want a Big Government guy who masquerades as a “conservative”. Rick was able to keep the masquerade going for a little while, but now he’s been in the spotlight too long and the mask is melting off.
Exactly.
The worst case in all this, is a Romney win.
Anything which keeps that harder for Romney to accomplish, is a win.
Even sending the contest into a brokered convention is better than a Romney win.
Absolute worst which happens with a brokered convention is another RINO, or Romney still. There is no downside to a brokered convention.
Christie, Jeb, any worst case you can think of is no worse than Romney. All the same, so why worry about the worst case?
We already have the worst case: Romney leading.
Best case, is we morph a brokered convention, into our best candidate in the last two decades: Sarah Palin. Teamed up with someone like Vice President Marco Rubio.
It would be a historic landslide, and mean a groundswell of new support which would carry the GOP and America, to new heights of freedom and excellence.
JMHO, but I think the point of the article; that Santorum lost because of his appealing to those democrats that consider themselves to be conservative via the robocalls, is disinformation and misdirection. Romney’s bogus counterattack on the issue came quick, as it needed to in Michigan, and may have made Santorum look bad in the eyes of some, but long-term is shallow and superficial and won’t have much effect.
The real reason Santorum did not get quite over the top, and basically tied Romney, is better-explained by a pretty good, albeit misguided, writer whose Romney-supporting ways have made her persona-non-grata on this forum lately, here:
http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2012-02-29.html
JMHO
I am to the point now where SANTORUM OR NEWT better freaking win this thing. I actually don’t care whom anymore. Santorum and Newt could have worked together more (I know you don’t agree) but they decided to run “against” each other. Had Santorum endorsed Newt in Florida and Newt endorsed Santorum in Michigan, we would not have the WORST of the three gaining traction. This thing has become a disaster. I blame BOTH Santorum and Newt PERIOD. I suppose you are going to disagree with me, but if you think about it you may thing parts of my post is correct.
Rick Santorum is not the polished politician that Romney is, he is not smooth and is not as well spoken as Newt, but, he is probably a better conservative than either of the others.
I'm not sure how much I care any more. It is a shame our primary has to go on so long. It would have been better to select a candidate behind closed doors in some smoke filled room and then let us all get behind him. No matter who wins now we will be split. The truth is that all of the candidates would be wildly better than Obama but the party is now split. We will not all get behind the eventual winner of the primary regardless of who it is. We have played right into the Democrats plan and now the party is fractured because of the hard fought primary.
I wish it was over.
One could argue my intent and many still do, but I call a mutual truce with you in particular, in that respect.
It is pointless that we keep arguing over something we both have little to no control over. I see this from a realistic point of view and you see this from a Moral Imperative. Neither position is more wrong or right from any other perspective than our own.
What we all face from here on out, is the reality of how this race has unfolded. The results, and how it actually unfolds and eventually ends, is what we have to accept for what it is.
I am not optimistic about the future outcome. I have expressed my concerns repeatedly and much if what I have pointed out, has or is, coming true. Don't get me wrong, I am not bragging about being right, I am merely pointing out that much of my outlook has become correct, and much of that has been in spite of itself.
Not sure what the fuss is here. The Romney camped pushed to change the primary from Republican only to open because the MI apparatus thought it would help Romney. Turns out it didn’t and now Mitt is screaming and his minnions are calling Santorum a sellout, a thief, you name it.
Michigan is not your typical liberal state. There are still a nice chunk of Reagan democrats outside of Detroit that would like a reason to vote for a Republican, but couldn’t handle Bush the second time around and fell for the hype with BO (plus McCain was awful).
And Romney and his supporters here were not complaining about the crossover vote in NH.
Rick reached out and probably got some voters to come along and through a wrench in the Romney plan.
To beat BO the GOP will need some Democrats to come across. Better to focus on those areas where they can be had (MI/OH/PA/VA) then where they never will (CA/NY/IL).
So, the republican party is split - everybody gets that.
It has been split ever since Woodrow Wilson out-progressived the Progressives and conservatives began gradually migrating over to the less-progressive Republican Party from the newly-even-more-progressive Democrat Party.
Sorry you have given up, but it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.
Sorry you have given up, but it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.
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I will never give up. If I am on my death bed on election day I will vote. But not everyone is as committed as me, I am old and see the advantages this country when led by the constitution offers.
Many of our leaders have ignored the constitution and look where it has gotten us. I will never abandon this country, I will never stop working for it trying to make my friends neighbors and family see the truth that is so plain to see if you only look.
I am only afraid that if Santorum is our nominee then the Romney and Newt people will stay home. If Romney is the nominee then the Santorum and Newt people will stay home. If Newt is nomimated then the Romney and Santorum people will feel slighted and not care and stay home. These are general statements of course there will be people like me that will vote and help get out the vote no matter who runs but there will be a lot who when they don’t feel they have a horse in the race will just stay home. That is what the Democrats want, that is what the press wants.
Sorry you have given up, but it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.
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I will never give up. If I am on my death bed on election day I will vote. But not everyone is as committed as me, I am old and see the advantages this country when led by the constitution offers.
Many of our leaders have ignored the constitution and look where it has gotten us. I will never abandon this country, I will never stop working for it trying to make my friends neighbors and family see the truth that is so plain to see if you only look.
I am only afraid that if Santorum is our nominee then the Romney and Newt people will stay home. If Romney is the nominee then the Santorum and Newt people will stay home. If Newt is nomimated then the Romney and Santorum people will feel slighted and not care and stay home. These are general statements of course there will be people like me that will vote and help get out the vote no matter who runs but there will be a lot who when they don’t feel they have a horse in the race will just stay home. That is what the Democrats want, that is what the press wants.
Your man Romney and the rest of the GOP-e and all the guns they could aim at the conservative, were unleashed in Florida, to stop Gingrich.
Your sustained campaign against Gingrich shows that the Romney crowd still consider him a threat.
All of the Newt people would vote for Santorum because they are conservatives, but a lot of Santorum voters would not vote for Gingrich, because they are Romney types, which means the majority of Santorum voters would enthusiastically switch to Romney.
“All is fair in love, war and politics. If not for the Democrat votes that Santorum got he would have finished 8 points farther behind. So what is it that is stupid about the robocalls? He harvested a lot of votes from them.”
Because this is a Republican primary, not a Democratic primary. It reveals a desperation and a willingness to do anything to get the nomination. Considering the attack ads Santorum has run against Newt, and the negative (and false) things he has said about other conservatives during the race, and now this, Santorum isn’t as principled as he pretends.
As I have no campaign against Gingrich, your comment is ignorant. This is an anti-Santorum thread, not a Gingrich thread.
I find it continually amusing that over a month after Florida, and with Gingrich essentially not competing in any states since then, his supporters are still making excuses for Florida, rather than trying to figure out how to help him win the next state he decides to compete for.
We’d all be better off if one of these candidates actually won the nomination, which isn’t likely to happen by supporters whining about how unfair Florida was. It’s not like we are liberals who would give the nomination to a candidate because life wasn’t fair.
I find it amusing that stopping Gingrich is still so important to Romney supporters.
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