Thank you; I appreciate it.
52 posted on Saturday, February 11, 2012 12:56:03 PM by Toespi: “Frankly I don’t think Rick could think that quickly.”
You may be right about Santorum’s ability to think on his feet. As the son of a military veteran and career VA psychologist, I think Santorum understands the importance of drill, drill, drill, and more drill. He needs to have stuff like this prepared in advance and ready to go when Obama fires at him.
Much of military training is repetitive drilling so when chaos hits, you don't need to think about what to do — you just do it because you've thought it through long ago and reflexes take over.
That's not the way college professors or academics are trained... not by a long shot. That shows a crucial difference in how Santorum was raised in his home life and how Gingrich was trained in his academic life.
I readily grant that Gingrich is good on his feet; no doubt about that. He's also gotten a reputation as the absent-minded professor who comes up with new ideas regularly without enough follow-through. I'm not saying that's a fair criticism, just saying that we've got one guy who is careful, methodical, and plans stuff long in advance, and another guy who shoots from the hip and often but not always hits his target.
52 posted on Saturday, February 11, 2012 12:56:03 PM by Toespi: “He is a horrible choice against Obama and good guy he may be, but he will make a wishy-washy president. He is way out of his league in this thing and I am stunned that, faced with what we are, we are entertaining the thought of Rick Santorum. He is going to be swallowed whole.”
I have been saying for a very long time here on Free Republic that I am very unhappy with our choices of candidates.
Executive experience counts. Most of our candidates with experience as governors dropped out before the race started, and those who were left have mostly dropped out or flamed out.
Even many of those without executive experience have either chosen not to run or have flamed out.
With the way the polls were looking in 2009 and 2010, we should be looking at a 1979-1980 type of race with scared Democrats trying to unseat Barack Obama to avoid losing the White House. Instead, we have a whole field of candidates who are either second-string players or who have major baggage.
I've got major concerns about what's going to happen in November. I think we share many of the same concerns.
The question is which of the four guys we have left (actually, as conservatives, it's down to only two choices) is best to go up against President Obama.
I've made my choice. I've made it very reluctantly, and with a tremendous amount of hesitation. I can respect people who choose Newt Gingrich as well, and have caused serious damage to my reputation in my own ecclesiastical circles for arguing that Newt Gingrich is a viable option and no conservative evangelical should ever vote for Mitt Romney. I don't like having to defend Newt Gingrich's bad behavior one bit, but I think he may be electable if nominated.
The short-term goal is stopping Mitt Romney and the long-term goal is defeating President Obama. That's my focus. For now, I think Santorum is our best shot at doing so, but I sure wish we had a better candidate, preferably a current or former state governor.
I can completely agree with that. It will be important for Santorum to surround himself with names and faces that have had executive experience. I think that's the big difference between what he'd do and what Obama did.