Posted on 12/29/2011 9:23:51 PM PST by Steelfish
Iowa: Santorum Surges, Romney Stable, Paul Dropping DEC 29, 2011 • BY STEPHEN F. HAYES
Rick Perry’s presidential campaign released a tough new ad Thursday targeting Rick Santorum and his history of supporting earmarks in Congress. Why is Perry attacking a candidate who has been mired in single digits in Iowa despite living there for most of the past several months?
Simple, Santorum is surging. A CNN poll of registered Iowa Republicans released Wednesday puts Santorum in third place with 16 percent of the vote – his highest share yet. It’s not an outlier. In fact, data from Perry’s internal daily tracking polling shows that the Santorum surge is real and that he has the potential to continue gaining in the days before voters gather for the caucuses next Tuesday.
The polling was described to TWS by a strategist for a rival campaign and confirmed by a source familiar with the numbers. The four important takeaways from Perry’s polling: Mitt Romney is “pulling away” from a group of four second-tier candidates bunched together behind him; Ron Paul’s numbers have dropped steadily in the aftermath of the attention given his troubling newsletters; Santorum’s rise has coincided with the erosion of support for Newt Gingrich; and Michele Bachmann is in danger of becoming a non-factor in the race.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
FWIW, Santorum has always believed that he would surge at this time. I didn’t believe it myself, but hey, I’m glad that he’s right. Bob
I doubt Santorum could carry his home state. Of course, no big loss there as no other Republican would likely win it either.
I agree with Santorum on 90% of things, but to me he comes across on camera as being an ass.
Kinda stuck on the Grinch, but Santo is of the right stuff.
Go Ricardo.
Rab
BO comes across as an ass too.
The only important thing to note is that Romney needs to lose next Tuesday in Iowa or else he can run away with it by winning New Hamsphire the next week.
I doubt SC and Florida will be kind to Willard no matter what IA and NH do.
I would love to see PA have to vote on Santorum for president. No one from PA has been elected since 1856, and I wonder if the current electorate would continue that pattern of PA failure, when a successful PA politician was right before them. I see nothing at all arrogant about Rick Santorum, and I am surprised that others do.
The last thing we need is a big government progressive like Milt duking it out with the Communist. Romney’s record in Ma. can make a patriot hurl. Someone, please tell me if there was ever a time as governor when Romney fought toe to toe with the socialist majority in the state houses. Tell me I’m wrong that this guy is going to be a softer opponent for the Punk than McCain was.
I’d much rather see Santorum surging and Paul dropping than the other way around.
And NH momentum for some crazy reason seems to flow directly to SC, but not in 1996.
Which is exactly why Romney is putting out this desperate story tonight, via media stooges:
I believe Santorum is at the top of my list now. It has taken a lot of thought and analysis since my top choice dropped out. He lacks some charisma but as I’ve thought about it, some of the most astute and effective people I have known in business are the same.
I agree. I really like the fact that all his kids were homeschooled. He must understand the dire condition of our educational system. Homeschooling was a really incredibly SMART move. He will NEVER regret that.
Hopefully, he will abolish the DOE and burn all the textbooks (that billy ayers wrote)—if he is elected.
Unfortunately, if distractions like Santorum get a reasonable bump from a strong IA performance, he’ll be able to compete long enough to ultimately ruin any viable conservative’s chances of clenching the nomination.
This whole disgusting fiasco of a primaries season is shaping up to be a cakewalk for Romney. Too many conservatives stuck on stupid with the same fanaticism and petty squabbling that gives away elections to the moderate RINO every damn time.
Maybe next time around, conservatives ought to have their own pre-primaries amongst themselves, and get this out of their system or something.
People like Rick, when they have been to Perryville, and Michelle is a graceful, elequent lady, but only 1 Rep has been elected POTUS ever, Paul is great because he is unelectable and never stops ever, so who’s left... God bless rick Santorum... hang in there!
Rick comes across as a person that bullies love to target. Do we want a POTUS that worldwide bullies want to target?
Very interesting... only 1 H of R elected ever... Garfield
So.. who is your “viable conservative?” Other than Santorum, there are none with any real measure of momentum.
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