Lack of Skill and Composure Lead to Unsurprising Santorum Face-Plant in Crucial Phoenix Debate

Reaganite Republican ^ | February 23, 2012 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

While there are varied degrees of criticism, it does seem all but unanimous this morning that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum blew a major chance  to convince the skeptical in our party that he's got what it takes to beat the Obama machine this fall.... 

Instead, Ricky Wonder Bread choked (for at least the first half of the debate), confirming the worst fears: unprepared for attacks he should have known were coming, uncharismatic, unconvincing as a debater- while unsettlingly showing flashes of temper and immaturity, serious flaws in a candidate for what is sure to be a brutal, negative battle.

Not only did Mittens have him on the ropes (in a hall stuffed with Romney supporters by the AZ GOP), Santorum was easily ruffled and repeatedly put back on his heels both by Mitt and Ron Paul, appearing quite angry for being asked to defend his past decisions and actions. As heard here time and time again, this one ain't got what it takes to make it in The Bigs, so glaringly obvious after watching him whiff like this... maybe after a few years on the farm team, but not this season. 

Hey, Santorum seems like an OK guy, I myself am a church-going Catholic and yes I do like most all his platform... he simply will not beat Obama in November if nominated, that's all.

Newt Gingrich -while laying off RS completely- actually delivered one of his better performances, hitting Romney as a hypocrite re. earmarks while mainly focusing on Obama, in particular his great enthusiasm for abortion. Combined with Santorum's failure to deliver in the clutch, it will be interesting to see how it plays out in the polls as ST approaches.

But catch this: Ron Paul again joined with Romney in trashing Santorum... while nary a peep about Mittens' (99% opposite of his) foreign policy.  Hmmm, well if that strikes you as exceedingly odd, you're not the only one: some see a pattern in this over the last few debates: since Paul's positions on Iran and such make him nonviable as a candidate himself, speculation is growing that he's in the race as a spoiler at this point, in order to split the right and drag-down Gingrich and Santorum.

Why would über-idealist Ron Paul want to go and do a thing like that... collaborate with Flipper, you ask? Rumors also rife the (unprincipled after all) old man is maneuvering to get Rand Paul on the ticket as VP (with unabashed statist Romney!). If true, this would be a hypocrital sellout of the first order... bet you Paulbots never saw this one coming- 

Now we're back to asking all of you take yet another fresh look at Newton Leroy Gingrich: all I can tell you is if Newt is unable to capitalize on Super Tuesday, I will be looking to an open convention in order to nominate a candidate who can go out there and lay into the Obama in the way that it needs to be done: Dear Leader's whole gig is based on maintaining his smiley-faced-mannequin facade while ramming-through a hidden (Marxist, racist) agenda as fast as possible, by-hook-or-by-crook... this reality needs to be exposed thoroughly in order for the Republican Party to win back the White House (as demonstrated by the Former House Speaker last night):

Video/more at Reaganite Republican

_______________________________________________________________________

CNN   MarkAmerica   American Power   h/t Riehl World View   Maggie's Notebook

[Reaganite Republican]

Personal *ping* service

Get signed up for yours by FReepMailing me...
‘Reaganite Repubican’

TIA

[Lady Lucky]

B4L8R flamewatch!

[Rennes Templar]

I sometimes wonder if Sarah Palin has anticipated a brokered convention, and if so, is she lying in wait.

[Lady Lucky]

Make that “bonfire of the vanity.”

[Ron H.]

The authors bias is so readily apparent that one can hardly take him/her not one bit seriously. Santorum could have shined like a diamond and this writer would have only seen a chunk of coal.

[Reaganite Republican]

She always does thing to be thinking two steps ahead somehow... I would welcome a Palin entry at that point.

[Reaganite Republican]

I have never found him charismatic, clever, or skilled enough to be nominee... why do I need to give him any chance after that when I feel Gingrich is ten times the man, makes Santorum look like a child, actually.

Ricky acting like one last night didn’t help his case one bit, did it.

[Not The Other One]

Bingo

[KeyLargo]

It’s only a Newtbot blog. Consider the source.

[SecondAmendment]

Did we watch the same debate ?
I admit Rick stumbled a bit on procedure,
but It was ROMNEY who had an epic fail!
Romney kept trying to steer every question into an MSM enabed food fight, often (and transparently) going way off topic to do so.

Mitt needs to drop out now.

[vg0va3]

How many times can we be asked to take a bite of the Newt apple and keeping coming back for more? Just because the name of State changes does not mean his flavor has changed. One day it taste like it is caramel apple. The next day it is just an old sour apple. You never know which apple you are biting into. I am at the point that I just don't want to take a bite of that apple again no matter the flavor.

That mean, based upon this process of elimination, we are left with Romney. Plane and simple! And, that does not excite me. Why? How excited will voters be to support the guy with has a great “Oppo Man” but has the same governing background as the One? Not very.

Unlike Mclame, Romney may fight the One, but the voters will stay with the devil they know instead of the one they don't.

That means we will get a liberal SCOTUS. That means more regulations. That means we will get even more crony capitalism. That means in 4 years we will become Greece, because this government can not help itself when it comes to mature governance. We will be in so much debt we will die just as other republics have in the past.

So enjoy the horse race we all call a campaign because the finish line will suck for everyone with Romney in the saddle.

[dforest]

Last night Newt did a good job. Much better than in the last two debates when he was the guy being ferociously attacked. It kind of works like that.

Santorum had a bad night. It is always harder when you have to spend the whole debate on defense rather than making good points. But..I am sure Santorum knew it was coming. It is hard to fight when the moderator and two of the debaters are pummeling you from every direction. That said, Newt was not the one doing the attacking.

All in all, Romney held his own and the outcome will help the Myth more than anyone else.

Santorum will drop some, Newt will rise some, but will either now be able to top Romney and his horse boy Ron Paul?

Me? I am not going to participate in insulting Newt or Santorum at this time. It is pointless.

[jacknhoo]

Wow, this writer is definately hijacking a name, huh!

Reagan was ProLife...seems this writer could not care any less about being ProLife. How can he call himself a “reaganite” and be so ProRomney who supports abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, eugenics, genocide and assisted-suicide, healthcare rationing, etc? And then be so anti-Santorum, who is the only candidate who is 100% ProLife and during a campaign where the ONLY thing that will save this nation is full respect for the dignity of the human person and Judeo-Christian principles and constitutional protection of religious liberty? Oh, I get it...he/she's a “Nancy Reaganite.”

Go figure...

[VanDeKoik]

It’s no shock to those of us that didnt buy into the “anointed candidate from Jesus” bandwagon attitude Ricks people have been putting out.

They spent so much time projecting greatness on this guy that they failed to remember that all projections need a big blank sheet to go on.

And boy Rick is one of the biggest blank sheets out there.

[taildragger]

Newt will rise some, but will either now be able to top Romney and his horse boy Ron Paul?

My guess he kicks Romney's sorry butt to the curb in the South and Santorum looses his Big-Mo their as last night showed he ain't got the Chops for it.

IMHO Rush maybe right, we maybe looking in a couple weeks of the massive rebound of the Newtster.

[dforest]

There won’t be a late entry. In a brokered convention, the big GOP cheeses will do the brokering and they will pick Mitt Romney.

They aren’t going to pick anyone who hasn’t put any sweat into actually running. That includes, Jeb, Mitch, Chris, Sarah, you name it.

If that happened, nobody would ever bother running as a candidate again. It wouldn’t be worth it. The resentment would cause the chosen one to lose.

[reasonisfaith]

Romney wins the award for least sincere and least conservative.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

‘zackly.

[csmusaret]

Santorum finished a distant fourth last night. Even Paul showed him to be the typical “politician”.