Posted on 09/29/2014 8:20:10 AM PDT by GIdget2004
Rick Santorum helped drag out the 2012 Republican primary, sending Mitt Romney limping into the general election.
Santorum’s lesson: Get in even earlier in 2016.
The iconoclast social conservative is already taking the temperature of potential donors. His big money benefactor, Foster Friess, still adores him. He’s headed to Iowa in October to meet with key conservative activists. And he is growing his grass-roots network beyond early primary states.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus earlier this year called the primary process a “complete disaster,” promising to slash the number of debates to prevent “the traveling circus” from hijacking the race as Santorum, Newt Gingrich and others did in 2012. The primary season pushed Romney further and further to the right as he burned through cash, instead of answering the Obama machine’s attacks on him.
But Santorum has no apologies. So while the field of social conservatives is expected to be stronger in 2016, the Pennsylvania Republican’s early moves could still put him in a better position in the next go-round, setting up the threat of an even bigger problem for establishment Republicans if they don’t prepare for another onslaught of outsiders eager to beat up the party’s eventual nominee.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
True, a Governor, accomplished Governor per economy and job creation, of Texas for 14 years as Veep and the Presidential candidate is a Senator for 2 years?
Cruz/Martinez ticket should get the Hispanic vote, I’d think 60% or more largely because of the names even with the Hispanics largely being a traditional voting block for the Democrats. But one never knows, if it would work, do it.
Love Rick’s pro-life stance, however he has NO chance of winning.
She’d be good choice for VP. I enjoyed her speech at the GOP convention in 2012. I still remember her line “damn, we’re Republicans” . . .
No Retreads.
What a joke, the idiot lost his seat by 17.5% because he is a phony.
I will ONLY vote for Republicans whose goal is to SHRINK government. I did deep research into Santorum in 2012 and concluded that he is a Christian statist registered as a Republican, nothing more, nothing less.
I hope he is HUMBLE enough to stay out of the race. But his ego is much too invested, I suspect, to pass.
Please no, make it stop, I could barely stand him when he was a senator, blow hard.
Rick is Cabinet material at best and even then only a utility cabinet at best.
A VP and President have to be from different states under the Constitution.
Hispanics make natural conservatives, but are ill-informed.
If you put two Hispanics on a ticket, it could change the way they vote for a generation.
Santorum has made it so there is no shame in being totally pro-life. I don’t know when the GOP had a candidate so pro-life and he has paved the way for those who carry that banner in the future. He probably won’t be very popular and those who would vote for him will probably vote for Cruz, I certainly don’t see any kind of conspiracy by GOP-e as some do.
From here on in though, Santorum set a precedent for a Pro-Life candidate, despite his bumblings. Perhaps that is what Pro-Choicers are actually being critical of him about, that and those who dislike his Pro-Traditional Marriage stance.
Not even close, Santorum was personally devoted to Arlen Specter, for most of his adult life.
From endorsing and campaigning for Specter’s 1996 presidential run to remove life from the GOP platform, to defeating Toomey, to the 2010 Senate race, Santorum never wavered in his devotion to Specter, Specter had to leave the party and become a democrat before the relationship ended, and then Santorum switched to supporting the pro-abortion Mitt Romney.
I don’t know, perhaps you are pro-choice but aside from Allen Keyes, Rick Santorum who is much more high-profile has the highest rating of any presidential candidate virtually since Ronald Reagan and yeah, Reagan messed up on abortion as Governor of that State.
http://prolifeprofiles.com/rick-santorum-pro-life
Sorry, he was PRO minimum wage, consistently every time it came up for vote. He was PRO union. He was PRO "compassionate conservatism" (i.e., using money extorted from taxpayers to fund charitable programs via government instead of leaving them in the hands of churches and charitable organizations, where they BELONG). He was all for getting rid of Planned Parenthood (good), but stated clearly that he wanted to see tax money used instead to fund pro-adoption campaigns. MORE AND BIGGER GOVERNMENT every time, that's Rick.
I read every single word of Santorum's campaign website in 2012 and compared it with every single word of Gingrich's website. For all his flaws, from a limited government MORAL standpoint, Gingrich was light years ahead of Santorum in his grasp of what ails American government and his plans to fix it. Gingrich had a well-stated sensible approach, build on a solid structure of principles and processes, for getting government out of everything from education to commerce.
Santorum's campaign website offered only feel-good platitudes, fluff and frosting that once analyzed, revealed a house of cards. Reading the websites, separating the wheat from the chaff in each one, it was crystal clear that Santorum was the inferior candidate in experience, vision, and track record. Santorum is the one who should have bowed out if he had any true honor, humility, and love for his country.
As far as I'm concerned, Santorum is something worse than a loser; he's a game-thrower.
Nonsense, Santorum didn’t create the pro-life republican and in fact has fought to empower pro-abortion republicans, see post 52.
Santorum is a hustler and always has been, in his early days he mocked Reagan supporters and worked only for liberal republicans, and he admits that he switched to pro-life at the start of his first run for office.
I won't vote for a statist even if that statist is pro-life. A statist is ANTI FREEDOM.
Why?
Rick has been quite willing to have Congress or the Federal Administration exercise powers they simply do not legally have, in order to suppress undesirable behavior. That is the sort of utilitarian totalitarian philosophy that we saw in Communist & Nazi countries, but it is in direct conflict with American Conservatism ....
BUMP TO THE TOP. Well said. Santorum should do America a favor and STAY OUT OF THE RACE.
Santorum won’t get much appeal, he’ll probably be in Alan Keyes territory, not invited to debates and not getting a high amount of votes. I doubt if he would take many votes from Ted Cruz. 2 percentage points maybe in early primaries? I don’t think Rick Santorum can make a viable run however I admire him for basically being the first big pro-life candidate in many years even if that success was mainly in the Primaries. If Ted Cruz and others come out as big Pro-Lifers, it’s thanks to Rick Santorum. Rick Perry is definitely very pro-life and has aided the law directly versus most other potential candidates.
Since you have nothing, you have to resort to "bots" this and "bots" that to make it look like you don't.
You haven't figured out a friggin' thing from 2012.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.