2012 republican presidential nominee III: can romney get santorum out of his hair?

Isn't the line on Santorum that his no-compromise neo-fundamentalism is more a campaign strategy than something he actually believes? It does get him votes, it's brought him this far, but I thought one of the ways Romney's managed to hammer his has been to point out that in Washington, he was a strategic-voting cynic just like everybody else prior to the Tea Party freshmen

― unlistenable in philly (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, February 29, 2012 3:05 AM (16 hours ago) Bookmark

yes and no. i suspect that, to his devoted fans, the issue isn't so much whether or not santorum is a political animal, but whether or not he "really believes" in the things he talks about. judging on appearances and as a non-fan, i have to say that he does seem to be a man who A) speaks his mind honestly and B) allows his principles to guide him. he's a real zealot, not a cynical fake one, and that's what makes him scary to us non-fundamentalists. in this, he stands in stark contrast to mitt romney, who never seems to believe anything he says, even when he's sticking his foot in his mouth.

to his devoted fans

these, frankly, do not exist. he is trying desperately to create them by getting ever more outlandish.

yeah, i dunno. santorum seems to the attract hardcore fundies in droves. they respond to the intensity of his gay-hating catholic fervor like women to bass.

he doesn't even win the catholics. he's just blindly paddling ever right-ward in the hopes that romney's inherent roboticism sinks him.

more to the point, rick santorum has no clue how he's arrived at his present position. he ran because he was bored and everyone in pennsylvania hates him. now he's sort of on the brink of vague importance! yet he remains a colossal dick with no clue about anything.

come on

Santorum obv came to his present position by virtue of being the last remaining choice of the insane wing of his party, after Palin abandoned them, and after they discovered Bachmann and Perry were fools and that Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich were knaves.

In Iowa, he literally was at 3% a couple of weeks before the caucuses, after spending four solid months shuffling around the state. Whatever success he has had so far has fallen right into his lap as a gift. He probably thinks it came from God.

In reality it came from desperation.

he doesn't even win the catholics.

yeah, that's what's so weird about him. catholics and evangelical fundies both realize what he apparently does not: he's more the latter than the former. it's foolish to understate his appeal to american religious fanatics, imo. doesn't matter that he's a fool, or that they hate him in pennsylvania, or that he's gotten to where he is basically by accident. he seems to have struck a chord among a particularly vocal group of lunatics.

at some point, should he be blessed with the gop nomination (?) it will be required of him to figure out just why.

none of the possible answers reflect well on him. he is only relevant by becoming increasingly radical, and there is happily a limit to that.

there are no gop operatives with money who think that tacking ever right-ward is a way to beat obama. santorum is a particularly bizarre anomaly thrust up by an absurd party.

thrust up you say

Dude who helped build and fund rightwing fundies and who has recently turned a new leaf, writes about how they could believe this stuff:

...It takes training for years to reject what is true. That training starts in a million Sunday schools and carries on through home schooling or private religious "education" and is completed in a hundred alternative Christian "colleges." It is sustained by a network of magazines like Christianity Today, World and many more. It has its own celebrity culture with heroes that no one outside the religious ghetto has heard of but who are selling literally millions of books to their followers.

Is it any wonder that a bedrock article of faith in the Republican Party is now that public schools are evil? Is it any wonder Santorum says he objects to President Obama saying all kids should work to go to college? In fact anything public and open to accountability is to be feared. Education is feared most of all.

All public space is hated because in that space, from infrastructure projects to the Federal Reserve to the UN to all government agencies, there has to be an acceptable baseline of fact that everyone buys into. Universities and the media - both places where ideas are discussed openly - are hated most of all.

So public space is demonized because by its very nature it falls outside of the control of the "mullahs," -- i.e. the pastors and bishops and celebrity religious leaders that are fighting off facts to maintain their control of their flocks. And the government is demonized because it imposes a rule of law over and above the Bible's mandates...

I think you're underselling his blue-collar appeal, which is far greater than Romney's. The establishment does not like him, sure, because they don't think he can beat Obama, but they're also somewhat stuck because the kind of enthusiasm he can rally is something they've been goading for a while now. It's not just his religious nutjob views, though that does him a lot of favours, its his "my granddad was a coal miner" bonafides too. Of course, exit polling in Michigan said people preferred Romney's businessman experience to Santorum's Senatorial work, but he also split the delegates there right down the middle.

The white working class vote is possibly the only way that Republicans can win this election, and Santorum might be able to deliver more of them than Romney. Not that I think anybody but Romney will be the nomination.

xpost

can one say "recently" w/r/t frank schaffer?

i feel like his trilogy of novels are the closest thing non-fundies will ever get to wrapping their minds around that kind of upbringing

I love this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2j2X27FXh0

"Time to take the 'Kill Romney' strategy to the next level." Time to...actually kill him.

(Note to Homeland Security: this is a message board where we regularly joke around, especially with regards to Mitt Romney. The above post is not intended as advocacy.)

allah salam alaikum plan is go

This f'in guy etc.

“I’m very careful about the colleges and universities our children go to,” Santorum said. “There are schools, I went to one — Penn State — that’s one of the liberal icons, unfortunately it’s gotten a lot worse. I can tell you professor after professor who docked my grades because of the viewpoints I expressed and the papers that I wrote, there’s no question that happened.”

“Your grades suffered because of your views at Penn State?” Langton asked

“Absolutely, absolutely,” Santorum said. “I used to go to war with some of my professors, who thought I was out of the pale, these are just not proper ideas. This is not something that’s not unusual, folks, I know this may be a surprise to some people … There is clearly a bias at the university.”

breitbart down

breaking

Yep.

Wow!

I mean, it's always sad when someone dies, but

rip he his behaving himself w/the angels now

Unbelievable.

!!! Well, RIP I guess.

what does the ap style guide say abt reacting to the death of unrepentant assholes

Will Santorum release the "Penn State papers" and let us decide whether he should have received an A?

he suddenly seems like a far more charming + iconoclastic rebel now that he's dead than he ever did alive. drugs, probably?

cocaine fueled hert attack has to be

Frank Schaeffer is da bomb. Okay will read rest of thread now.

holy shit breitbart!!

acc to FR "jonah goldberg in tears on fox news"

max can you write a "what to think about breitbart" thing like the m.i.a./tebow ones please?

big homie couldn't even get his own thread

If I don't click through and read the words "apoplectic stroke" I'm going to be very upset.

And who could live up to his star billing on the NR Cruise in November, I ask you.

The Shirley Sherrod story was the one time I thought, "This guy's an awful person." I had no specific sense of him outside that, other than he seemed to get very angry very easily.

There was also the time he flipped off a "peace march" outside his hotel because he thought they were anti-Iraq-War. Turns out they were protesting the conscription of children into armies in Africa.

How do you die of "natural causes" at 43? Get hit by a bus?

he was one of the most flagrant disseminators of damaging misinformation (which is saying ALOT, really), & the world is a better place without him.

Breitbard and Atwater, jammin' in heaven.

Yeah, Atwater...I thought of Morton Downey, Jr.

I mean, it's always sad when someone dies, but

― flagp∞st (dayo), Thursday, March 1, 2012 8:35 AM (59 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no it is not. he was a worthless fuck.

fuck this guy

i mean i'm well aware that another troll will pop up in his place but i will not regret never seeing his fucking face on my computer or TV screen again. i mean he's dead now, what the fuck does he care if i said that? if i'd say it while he was alive, it's no worse to say it once he's dead.

frank shaeffer quote in that last kingfish quote is amazing, bookmarked the page it came from

uh, "frank shaeffer quote in that last kingfish post..."

matt drudge couldn't even spare a headline for brietbart, no honor among thieves I guess

looks like there's one up now?

DEAR READER: In the first decade of the DRUDGEREPORT Andrew Breitbart was a constant source of energy, passion and commitment. We shared a love of headlines, a love of the news, an excitement about what's happening. I don't think there was a single day during that time when we did not flash each other or laugh with each other, or challenge each other. I still see him in my mind's eye in Venice Beach, the sunny day I met him. He was in his mid 20's. It was all there. He had a wonderful, loving family and we all feel great sadness for them today... MDRUDGE