...Romney...said he was going to be to the left of Ted Kennedy on gay rights, on abortion and a whole host of other issues.
Posted on 01/08/2012 10:30:38 AM PST by Brices Crossroads
Sleep makes a difference. Two debates here in New Hampshire proved that can be especially true in politics.
In the hours before the ABC News Saturday night debate in Manchester, Rick Santorum criss-crossed southern New Hampshire, holding at least four events in which he spoke or debated with supporters and critics for more than five hours. In his next-to-last event, at a barn in Hollis, he arrived, saw the crowd spilling out of the doors, and spent about 20 minutes talking to the people who couldn't get inside before going in and conducting a 90-minute town hall.
It was a schedule that would exhaust any candidate, and yet Santorum, nursing a case of hoarseness, went on to take part in the ABC debate at 9 p.m. Aides explained that Santorum sometimes takes cat naps before big events like the debate, but they also conceded that most of the time he doesn't actually get to sleep. They characterized all the politicking as real-world debate prep that leaves Santorum energized, but the fact is any candidate would be tired after a long day -- not the best time to take part in a debate that might determine one's political future. And yet that is what Santorum did.
Fast forward 12 hours, when Santorum and the rest of the GOP field took part in a Sunday morning debate on NBC's "Meet the Press." Even though he had a quick turnaround from the previous night's debate, Santorum, with a night's sleep, came out of the box much sharper. And in the first half hour of the debate, Santorum learned, late, a key lesson of the campaign: You can attack Mitt Romney more effectively after a night's sleep.
Early in the debate, after Newt Gingrich attacked Romney as virtually unelectable, given his record as a "Massachusetts moderate," Romney responded that he governed as a "solid conservative" in Massachusetts. "I'm very proud of the conservative record I have," Romney said.
That was too much for Santorum. "If his record was so great as governor of Massachusetts, why didn't you run for re-election?" he asked Romney. "I mean, if you didn't want to even stand before the people of Massachusetts and run on your record -- if it was that great, why did you bail out?"
"I was in a 71 percent Democratic district," Santorum continued. "I had a 90 percent conservative voting record. It was a hard thing to do. My district was more Democrat than the state of Massachusetts, and I stood up and fought for the conservative principles. I didn't do what Gov. Romney did in 1994 [when Romney ran for Senate against Sen. Edward Kennedy]. I was running the same year he ran, in 1994. I ran in the tough state of Pennsylvania against an incumbent. Gov. Romney lost by almost 20 points. Why? Because at the end of that campaign, he wouldn't stand up for conservative principles, he ran from Ronald Reagan, and he said he was going to be to the left of Ted Kennedy on gay rights, on abortion and a whole host of other issues. We want someone when the time gets tough -- and it will in this election -- we want someone who's going to stand up and fight for the conservative principles, not bail out and not run to the left of Ted Kennedy."
As far as playing offense goes, it was one of Santorum's best moments in all of the 15 Republican debates. "Certainly very sharp today," top Santorum adviser John Brabender said via email near the end of the debate. "More than three hours of sleep certainly helps."
Santorum even got off easy just seconds later when moderator David Gregory pointed out that Santorum had praised Romney's conservatism when he endorsed Romney in 1994. "Vis a vis John McCain," Santorum, who has a not-so-secret antipathy for McCain, said simply. Gregory did not follow up.
Romney was reduced to a rhetorical trick: "A lot of things were inaccurate in that," he said of Santorum's accusation, "and I'm not going to go through them one by one." In fact, he didn't go through any of them. Instead, Romney explained that he ran for Massachusetts governor to fix the state's problems, not to advance a political career.
"I went to Massachusetts to make a difference," Romney said. "I didn't go there to make a political career, running time and time again…Run again? That would be about me. I was trying to get the state in the best shape I possibly could. [I] left the world of politics, went back into business, now I have the opportunity I believe to use the experience I have…For me, politics is not a career."
Santorum's critique had opened the door for Newt Gingrich to jump in. "Can we drop a little bit of the pious baloney?" Gingrich asked Romney. "The fact is, you had a very bad re-election rating [at the end of Romney's governorship], you dropped out of office, you had been out of state for something like 200 days preparing to run for president. You didn't have this interlude of citizenship while you thought about what to do. You were running for president while you were governor. You were going all over the country. You were out of state consistently. You then promptly re-entered politics. You happened to lose to McCain, as you had lost to Kennedy. Now, you're back running. You've been running consistently for years and years. So this idea that suddenly citizenship showed up in your mind -- just level with the American people. You've been running at least since the 1990s."
What Gingrich said was accurate. While governor of Massachusetts, Romney formed a political action committee, began traveling to key early primary and caucus states, and changed positions on issues that were critical to the Republican primary electorate. He has, in fact, been running for quite a while.
"Mr. Speaker, citizenship has always been in my mind," Romney responded, as calm as Gingrich had been angry. As he has often done, Romney repeated a story of advice his father gave him not to run for office until he was financially secure and his children were grown. In 1994, Romney was certainly financially set, and his youngest child was in his teens. Romney's response was relaxed and measured and, even though he ignored the substance of Santorum's and Gingrich's attacks, probably reassured voters looking for a cool head in the White House.
Santorum and Gingrich probably realize that the "career politician" issue is not going to make much, if any, difference to Republican voters, and certainly won't matter in a general election. And Gingrich's critique, while effective, used language that probably turned off some Republican voters who sympathized with his point. But Sunday's debate was the underdogs' last chance at Romney before Tuesday's primary. They did some venting. And with a full night's sleep, they at least did it as best they could.
My article at the link:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2828720/posts
Ping!
“language that turned off republican voters” ??? Give me a break, a few not so soft words and some idiots are turned off?? Maybe they should grow a pair.
Running for office is a female dog. ;-)
Maybe it was just in contrast to the crappy debate on ABC, the one this morning on NBC was actually one of the best.
If Santorum and Newt keep this up, the socialist (Romney) will drop like a lead balloon.
If you didn’t watch it, it’s worth the time.
Original Air Time: Sunday, January 8 at 9am
Romney said. “I didn’t go there to make a political career, running time and time again…
Run again? That would be about me.
[I] left the world of politics,
…For me, politics is not a career.”
_____________________________________________
And yet here you are right in the midst, RINO Romney..
Making politics a career...
Running time and time again...1994, 2002, 2008, 2012
Running again..Dont look now...I guess it must be all about you..
When did you leave even for a moment ???...youve been in this world since you were a young boy being groomed by Big Daddy George to be the POTUS..
Your pretty wife and FIVE sons are even part of your carefully orchestrated political world..
Yep it sure looks like a career choice...
Get out now ...prove your lying words..
I wish that weird “contraception” fiasco had been tweeked into abortion by one of them against Willie Mitty...
after all some women use abortion as a means of contraception so it wouldnt be that far a step...
I kept shouting suggestions at them..
there needs to be a knock down drag out on abortion...
Willie Mitty needs to be hammered continually...
Forget the gay issues and spend that time exposing the 40+ years that hes pushed abortion...
I wish thay would stop him from claiming to be conservative...
only pro-life is conservative..
and Willie Mitty has not been pro-life...
LOL. At least, the Career Politicians actually win their terms and then run again. Mittens is a wannabe career politician who just keeps running and running cause he can’t win.LOL.
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