Posted on 01/04/2012 5:16:30 AM PST by Slyscribe
Rick Santorum had the good fortune to surge right into Tuesdays Iowa caucuses, where he virtually tied Mitt Romney.
Several other GOP candidates, including Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich, have risen to the top of the polls only to fall quickly to earth. Even if the ex-Pennsylvania senator can avoid implosion, he still faces a daunting road to the nomination.
Romney has a nationwide campaign with lots of cash. Many early contests appear to favor him.
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Romney will destroy Santorum. He wil disavow what his Super PACs put out, but it will happen.
[Romney will destroy Santorum.]
A liberal lie that rinos love to say but is a lie nevertheless. Santorum is a conservative, Romney is a liberal rino to the right of Bush and the American collapse will continue under the rino fools who trust him.
Iowa was Santorum’s best hope, and he was not quite able to pull it off. Nice showing, though.
If Rick could not win Iowa, where he has lived for two years and met every voter, where is he going to win? He won’t have two years to spend in each state. Iowa is his high water mark.
Even Huckabee actually defeated Romney in Iowa, and quite handily, too. Santorum underperformed Huckabee while relying almost exclusively on Huckabee voters, endorsements, and staff. Where else will he do better, especially now that he’ll have the bullseye on his back?
True. And if Bishop Romney is not the RINO GOP candidate,
Team Romney will throw the Election, as they have
in 2008, 2010 (in select sites by Rove), and
probably, many, many other times.
I despise Romney. But the fact remains that Santorum will be destroyed before South Carolina.
The establishment Republicans are crowning Romney in another "its his turn" primary.....which is a mistake.
All Romney can do now is try to flush Santorum, but Newt is waiting in the wings if that happens. It is clear from Newt's speech last night that he and Santorum will double-team Romney, and that gives Santorum a very good opportunity to stay on the high road while Newt savages Mitt.
We will see what happens. I think your pessimism has some basis in recent history, but the dynamic has changed now.
Romney will not turn his guns on Santorum until and unless Gingrich quits the race.
Classic divide and conquer.
Newt threatens Romney, Rick doesn’t.
I'm sure he will but I'm not so sure that the destruction will happen very soon. Here's why:
Romney is set to lose to Gingrich in SC and perhaps in FL as well. What he needs is a strong conservative opponent in the race to split the conservative vote. Conveniently Santorum shows up right on schedule. So the Romney team will be running their SC and FL simulations with a strong, untouched Santorum and a beaten down Santorum to see what their best strategy is. I'm betting the strong, untouched version is better for the Romney team. If so, they will go lightly on the near winner of the Iowa caucus - for awhile.
I’ve been thinking, wouldn’t it be smarter for Romney to ignore Santorum, and let the anti-Romney vote continue to be split among the remaining candidates? After all, that tactic worked pretty well for McCain.
Ugh, I can’t stomach the thought of Romney. Seems like an OK guy but wishy washy. The global elites will eat him for lunch. May as well let the country collapse under Odingo’s watch.
You are quite correct.
Santorum can’t spend months in the other 56 states, and now will have to project a persona that won’t be based on visiting coffee shops and state fairs. That means offensive postures at debates, and attack ads.
He hasn’t before. Romney-crats will most assuredly do so to him.
Question is...will it happen in time? It will be interesting to watch how bloody Romney is willing to get.
Hell its always their turn. And they keep shoving losers down the partys throat.
“Iowa was Santorums best hope, and he was not quite able to pull it off. Nice showing, though.”
Believe me, Santorum is far more appealing than Plastic Mitt to most of us SC voters. With Perry dropping out, he should pick up the majority of his voters. I wish Bachmann would cease cluttering the field as well. We’ll see how the publicity goes, but a lot of people seem to actually be paying attention this election cycle.
What I’d love is for some nice dirt to come out on Romney...that would turn the tide pretty quick I think.
While some feel Santorum has electability issues versus 0, I’m not in that camp. He’s young enough to be appealing, and on the issues he’ll kill 0. In the debates he should do fine as well.
I think I may have to get involved in some last minute campaigning for Santorum.
I understand your points....and they are very good, however, Santorum is untarnished yet. Romney cannot afford to allow Santorum to gain momentum.
Therefore, if Romney wants Santorum and Gingrich to split the conservative vote, he needs a weaker Santorum.
Therefore, watch Santorum get bloodied up enough (by Romney)so he loses his Iowa momentum.
His record is not dirt enough?!
Ron Paul will help Romney attack Santorum as well. He launched very effective attacks on Gingrich, and he has already called Santorum a big government liberal. I think Paul is trying to eliminate all the other candidates so that he is the only alternative to Romney.
“His record is not dirt enough?!”
Apparently not. He won in Iowa, no?
Santorum in my view is another Bush conservative or in others words an establishment progressive. Newt, Paul or even Perry would have been a better choice. Santorum is good on social issues thou, I will give him that.
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