David Frum - Conservatives: Do You Really Want to Do This to Your Party? (Santorum)

The Daily Beast ^ | March 14, 2012 | David Frum

[2ndDivisionVet]

After tonight, Newt Gingrich has to be considered finished. You don't get to be the nominee if you don't win primaries, and if Gingrich can't win Alabama and Mississippi, it's hard to imagine any other state in the country where he can win.

While Gingrich may remain some kind of factor, in almost every remaining state, this race devolves to a Romney-Santorum battle.

That's great news for Santorum, who has been hoping and yearning for a two-man race.

It's acceptable news for Romney, who knows that party donors and insiders dread a Santorum candidacy as likely to lead to a 300+ electoral vote Obama blow-out.

And it raises this question for Republican party conservatives: Is Rick Santorum really the place where they want to place their hopes?

The Santorum candidacy pushes Republicans toward an election in which the issues are religious, cultural, and sexual, not economic. It's a candidacy that pushes the party away from metropolitan areas, away from areas of growing population, and rebases the party everywhere that is not dynamic, not growing. The concerns of hard-pressed America are deeply worthy of attention and respect. They call for responses and solutions. That's not what a Santorum candidacy offers. (As we've seen with the Santorum proposals to spur manufacturing with one single change in tax law, this is not a policy-serious campaign.) Instead, a Santorum candidacy offers an airing of resentments and grievances. Is that really where party conservatives want to go?

[llandres]

“There was one true accomplished adult conservative in the race who could articulate the issues and the supposedly conservative base turned their backs on him to support a born again charismatic holier than thou Catholic”

Yes, I’m still incredulous over it.

We need a brokered/contested convention, much to the establishment’s consternation.

I bear no ill will toward Santorum, but he can’t win. Our #1 mission is to get BHO out, and that requires cold objectivity. Romney is a sitting duck as well.

If Newt were the nominee, the media couldn’t ignore him or shut him down, and the masses would get to hear him.

He’d win.

[perchprism]

“Cats, on the other hand cannot be herded”.

Poor Kitty.

[Carthego delenda est]

“I think the term you were searching for is vibrato.”

Re:”Hooo! wooo! wooo! Be afraid Rove...”

Thanks!

[okie01]

Is that really where party conservatives want to go?

Perhaps, David, you should look at it like this: We don't want to go Romney's way.

[Lancey Howard]

Comments?

Frum is a complete asshat. ..About the last guy conservatives should listen to.

[Pox]

FU Frum.

[Darren McCarty]

Isn’t this hoser now an Obama backer?

[Jim from C-Town]

Newt has NO love for Romney! Neither does Santorum or any other person who has been the object of his dirty tricks. If Romney gets the nomination, I assure you, he will get little help from the base to get him across the finish line. They may vote for him, but they will not make calls, pound the pavement and GTVO. And that is a killer for a loser like Romney.

Romney has made as many enemies in the Republican Party as he is likely to make in the Democrat Party.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I have been saying this ever since he won the 3 nothing states that nobody else competed in.

A few days ago I made fun of that, and a Gingrich supporter took my head off claiming that Gingrich was actually praising Santorum for being smart enough to compete for those states, not calling them "nothing states".

Republicans need to compete in Colorado to win the Presidency. Your dismissal of that state, and worse, Missouri, doesn't make your opinion very credible. It would be nice to win the Minnesota Senate race as well, the 3rd state you dismiss as "nothing".

[Jim from C-Town]

Exactly, If Romney is in expect a full court press on the ‘oddities’ of Mormonism. They will crucify him, npo pun intended.

If Santorum is elected, they will try to paint him as Odd because he is a practicing Catholic. Of course Catholicism is the largest denomination in the U.S., BY FAR. It's adherents are all at least familiar with it's [precepts and most will at least understand the concept of keeping a Catholic life, even if they fall short of that goal themselves.

There are close to Eighty Million Roman Catholics in the U.S. constituting around 22% of the population.

[Thorliveshere]

I remember when my ex-friend was switching over the darkside (I think living in NYC corrupted him), he insisted that I read Frum to “get the truth,” and since then, I knew Frum was a schmuck.

[cricket]

IMHO; the worst damage to Repub Party future has come not from ‘misguided’ Conservatives; but rather from arrogant dismissal of Conservatives; and bull-headed MO’s and weak assumptions about America's enemies as analyzed from the GOP/RNC.

[SatinDoll]

“The only reason Gingrich is even in this race is to siphon off votes from Santorum. Seriously, you gotta know that Romney is paying Gingrich to stay in the race.”

When you’re wrong, you are REALLY wrong!

Romney spent $50 MILLION DOLLARS on anti-Newt negative ads in Florida. He spent $20 MILLION DOLLARS on anti-Newt ads in Iowa.

[SECURE AMERICA]

I am a Conservative. I am not a Republican. I am an American.
A Christian, a Veteran. I vote for America not for the GOP or the DNC. I believe that more and more people are coming to this position.

[ApplegateRanch]

You should add Fords to your list, too.

[Mozilla]

The Romney candidacy pushes Republicans toward an election in which the issues are crony capitalism on Romney’s part, global warming, Romneycare and his dismal liberal record in Massachusetts not economics.

[Diogenesis]

Backstabber ROmney SHOULD pull out, but will not.

Like before the goal of Team Romney is for Obama to win.

FLASHBACK:

The McCain/Palin ticket was up ++4 to 10 pts
in some polls, days prior to Election 2008.
So rather than helping the GOP, Romney and
TeamROMNEY and the RNME (Republican National Media Establishment)
decided …to attack Gov. Palin to throw Election2008.

Romney, and the Van der Sloot RNME RINOs for Obama in 2008

Late in October, The American Spectator's The Prowler revealed:
"Former Mitt Romney presidential campaign staffers…
have been involved in spreading anti-Palin spin to reporters, seeking to diminish her standing after the election.
'Sarah Palin is a lightweight, she won't be the first, not even the third, person people will think of when it comes to 2012,'
says one former Romney aide…
'The only serious candidate ready to challenge to lead the Republican Party is Mitt Romney.
"Some former Romney aides were behind the recent leaks to media, including CNN, that Governor Sarah Palin was a 'diva' and was going off message intentionally."

---

The Palmetto Scoop reported: "One of the first stories to hit the national airwaves was
the claim of a major internal strife between close McCain aides and the folks handling his running mate Sarah Palin."
"I’m told by very good sources that this was indeed the case and that a rift had developed, but it was between Palin’s people and the staffers brought on from the failed presidential campaign of former Gov. Mitt Romney, not McCain aides."
"The sources said nearly 80 percent of Romney’s former staff was absorbed by McCain and these individuals were responsible for what amounts to a premeditated, last-minute sabotage of Palin."
… aides loyal to Romney inside the McCain campaign, said The Scoop, reportedly saw
that Palin would be a serious contender for the Republican nomination in 2012 or 2016, which made her a threat to another presidential quest by Romney.

---

"These staffers are now out trying to finish her off ….hoping it would ingratiate themselves with Mitt Romney."

---

"Who's the Palin Leaker from the McCain Campaign?
National Review Online The publication of a Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin
appears to have opened old wounds in the McCain campaign.
... the source of the “Diva” leak was Nicolle Wallace’s husband."

---

"Peeking Out From the McCain Wreckage: Mitt Romney"

"Someone's got to say it: IS MITT ROMNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBAMA'S VICTORY?"

"Vanity: Team Romney Sabotaged Palin and Continuing to Do So?"

"Romney Supporters Trashing Palin"

"Romney advisors sniping at Palin?"

---

[MasterGunner01]

No, David Frum, I want to purge RINOs like you from the GOP-ee.

[rivercat]

It doesn’t matter, that’s pocket change for politicians. Newt siphons off votes from Santorum. Newt only needs to stay in the race long enough guarantee enough delegates so that Romney can coast across the finish line with about 30% of the delegates from each of the remaining “proportional” States.