[Antoninus]

Prediction = Single digits for Santorum.

Way to go out on a limb.

Question = Will Little Ricky endorse Willard as he did in 2008?

Cain did too. Or have you forgotten that? At least Santorum has hit Romney hard during the debates. I give him, Perry and Gingrich major points for doing that.

[JohnBovenmyer]

Santorum and Cain endorsed Romney in 2008, but the real shocker for many here, who are either new members or have tried hard and succeeded in forgetting the past, is that Freepers, unofficially as a group, favored Romney in 2008... once it was down to the final three of Romney, Huckabee and McCain. Or at least so our polling then showed IIRC. There certainly was a very strong anti-Romney group here then, which IMHO has grown even stronger since, and the majority of Freepers earlier favored either Duncan Hunter or Fred Thompson. But after they bowed out the anti-Huck and anti-McCain factors were stronger than the anti-Romney ones here.

I'm NOT saying this to support Mitt- I'm voting for Santorum Tuesday - we should remember the past here and learn from it. I'd be willing to try dragging Bachmann or Perry across the finish line in the fall, but believe Santorum is a far better choice. I don't trust Newt as far as I could throw Paul.

Santorum's negatives are Spector and his big 2006 loss. He lost big then for three reasons. #1 was Spector. Anyone who votes Obama over Santorum in the fall would be guilty of more of the same than was Santorum in choosing Spector over Toomey. Although worthy of consideration in the primaries the problem disappears in the general. #2 was voters were mad at Bush and congressional RINOS for going along with big spending Democrats in 2006. As they are now more mad at Obama than the RINOs and Bush isn't running that problem also disappears for Santorum in the general. That might be a problem if Mitt were the choice. It might also be problem were Perry the choice as Obama and the MSM would vigorously caricature him as W's dumber brother. I know he's not, but Perry hasn't show the ability to prove it! Santorum's #3 problem in 2006 was the left found the last pro-life name Democrat in the country to run against him, thus denying him the monopoly on pro-life single issue voters. With the most pro-abort Democratic running that problem also disappears in the general.

All the left can do to attack Santorum is to attack him on the issues. He's been through enough tough races to have outed any dirt on him; there isn't any. The only unvetted dirt would be Obama's. Most here would support his stands on the issues; certainly more so than Romney's stands. Unlike McCain he'll strongly defend those issues. If he does well in Iowa, especially if he beats Bachmann and Perry, he'll rise in the polls at their expense and start to become a plausible option. Get to where Cain had been in the polls and his "unelectable" label will be forgotten as was Herman's for awhile. Sure he'll need money, but any GOP nominee will have enough funds, used wisely, to compete in the fall. None will have as much as Obama, but even McCain's stash would have been enough had he fought as hard as his Veep and had he seen through TARP (which Santorum did.)