RUSH: WHY SANTORUM SCARES THE LEFT

www.RushLimbaugh.com ^ | February 28, 2012 | Rush Limbaugh

[Yosemitest]

Why Santorum Scares the Left
February 28, 2012

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay, we have some headlines that are in the Drive-By Media today.
Most of them are about Santorum and how out of touch he is and how what a wacko he is and what a creep, what a fanatic.
I had 'em set aside. I'll just run through the headlines here.

ABC: "New Lows Among Conservatives Mark Romney’s Popularity Problem."
This is an ABC News/Washington Post poll on Romney's plummeting popularity with conservative Republicans.

From the Right Scoop: "Santorum: Romney Uniquely Unqualified to Take on President Obama."

From the National Journal (they do The Hotline): "Santorum Argues for Religion in Government."

Let me tell you what this one springs from.
Santorum read John Kennedy's religion speech in 1960 and said it made him wanna puke.
I would not have said that it makes me want to "puke," but that's what Santorum said.
Now, some people are saying that Santorum said he heard it.
Santorum never said he heard the speech because he was only two-years-old.
He read the speech and when he became familiar with it... It was Kennedy's famous speech.
Back then, people were scared to death that the Pope -- when he was elected -- that the Catholics were elected.
So Kennedy's speech was to allay their fears.
And Kennedy said,
there is no way any prelate is gonna be telling me what to do.
There's no way I'm gonna calling any prelate and asking what to do.

The way Santorum interpreted Kennedy's speech was to say:
"There is an absolute wall of separation of church and state,
and nobody is gonna cross that line as long as I'm president.
I'm not gonna cross it."
Santorum said:
I don't believe that.
He thought Kennedy was saying that people of faith had no business in politics.
Other people have read Kennedy's speech or heard it, and said,
"That's not what he was saying.
He was trying to assure people that he was not going to be bringing his faith and turning the Oval Office into St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Kennedy was not gonna be doing that."
Anyway, Santorum made the point that the speech made him want to puke, and so we got the headline in the National Journal: "Santorum Argues for Religion in Government."

This is the Washington Post, lead editorial: "Rick Santorum Shows He's the Wrong Man to be President."
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: "Rick Santorum's Rhetoric Goes to the Extreme."
Richard Cohen in the Washington Post: "Enough of Rick Santorum's Sermons."
So the Drive-Bys are filled with stories.
The State-Controlled Media is filled with stories today about what a lunatic fringe, religious wacko that Santorum is. (interruption)
Snerdley's asking, "What Republicans do Richard Cohen and Eugene Robinson like?"
They don't like any. That's not my point.
Of course they don't like any Republicans.
My point is they are scared.
They are scared.

I don't know that they're scared that Santorum will win.
They're frightened, they're scared to death about if he does win.
They are just...
Liberals do not like absolutes in anything.
They don't like judgment, they don't like morality,
they don't think anybody has the right to define it or to impose it or any of that.
They're just scared, pure and simple. (interruption)
What do they think will happen?
They think if Santorum's elected president, that in five minutes abortion will be illegal and that they will be in jail.
If you doubt me, remember the 1992 Clinton inaugural.
The week before it, they had all these parties in Washington --
some of them outside on The Mall and
-- and they had Aretha Franklin come and sing songs.

The musical theme one day was:We're outta jail; we have been released. Remember that? We have overcome.
It was as though they had been in shackles under 12 years of Reagan and Bush and they've been set free.
Freedom had finally come. They had all been let loose, is how they interpreted Clinton winning.
So figuratively they think they're gonna be going back to jail.
They think they're gonna have the condemnation and the wrath of the White House down on them, about how they live their lives.
They're just worried. They're afraid that there will be a common morality.
They're afraid that there will be definitions right and wrong.
They're afraid that laissez-faire lifestyles go out the door,
and they're afraid that that's what an election of somebody like Santorum would mean vis-a-vis where the American public happened to be.

[They] Think it would be the end of gay marriage, the end of tolerance, the end of all these wonderful politically correct terms that they've come up with.
They're literally scared.
Remember, I told you the old story about Ron Silver, and they had a fly by of some jets
and Ron Silver is flipping the jets off as they flew overhead and he's cursing them out.
And somebody said,
"Ron! Ron! Ron! Those are our jets now."
"Oh, yeah."
And Ron Silver -- God bless him,
may he rest in peace, peace be upon him -- converted to Republicanism before he died.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Back to the sound bites now.
Mika Brzezinski on Morning Joe today talking about this Operation Chaos, all the Democrats being urged to cross and vote for Santorum today.
They're talking about the social issues and Mika doesn't quite understand what's going on here with the social issues.
She and Mark Halperin have a conversation about it.

BRZEZINSKI: You guys follow these events closely, is there something we're missing?
Is he being asked about these things and put in a bad position?
Or is he literally going ahead with these issues on his own?

HALPERIN: I mean he says it often enough that the press stays on it and the press is obsessed with these things.
But a more skillful candidate wouldn't say these things initially and if they occasionally did, they’d fix it.
George Bush circa 1999, if he had the president's record to deal with and the conservative wing of his party to play off of,
to look more centrist, this is a great situation for a strong candidate.

RUSH: Is there something we're missing?
Why does he keep talking about the social issues?
It's such a death knell, what am I missing?
She's sensing something here, she doesn't know what it is.
She doesn't know why Santorum's still breathing.
She can't figure out why he still has a chance at winning anything.
In the liberal Democrat world, this is your funeral talking about this stuff, basing a campaign is suicide.
Social issues is suicide. Why does he keep talking about it?
Because the Democrats keep bringing it up.
They brought it up, he keeps getting questions about it.
Mark Halperin again on Morning Joe, Scarborough said,
"Are we gonna have a situation here
where the Republican Party goes to him and grabs somebody and says
you have no other choice at this point?" Meaning Romney.

HALPERIN: Michigan would be a huge blow.
The danger for him is if he's blown out on Super Tuesday,
which he could be, then I think the party has to get him out of the race.
While he could win it, it'd be too ugly.

RUSH: Mark Halperin, TIME Magazine. If Romney loses Michigan and Super Tuesday, the party has to get him out of the race.
Now, folks, as a keen observer here, go back six months.
Can you ever imagine this question being asked,
"If Romney loses Super Tuesday, the party's gotta get him out of the race?"
The last guy anybody woulda thought that about.
Here's Scarborough explaining to people what it is about Santorum that bothers them.

SCARBOROUGH: Rick Santorum is going out and telling people that
we live in this brave new world where the freedom of religion is going to be challenged because -- I'm laughing -- the term "freedom of worship."
What the hell's he talking about?
We got 15% real unemployment, we've got a stagnant economy, real wages have been down since 1973,
and he's playing semantic games that have absolutely no application to people in working-class Americans' day-to-day lives.

KELLER: Well, the thing you can say in defense of Rick Santorum is he actually means it.

SCARBOROUGH: There are people who believe that the anti-Christ is going to use the Trilateral Commission, Chuck Todd, to lead us all to Revelations.
It's crazy.

RUSH: They know that Santorum believes it.
That's what bugs 'em. He believes it.
Oh, he really believes this stuff.
And you look at the polling data and it's not Santorum's numbers that are falling.
It's Obama's numbers that are falling. And, Joe, I would tell you,
Obama's numbers are falling precisely because there's 15% real unemployment.
Obama's numbers are falling because there is a stagnant economy.
Obama's numbers are falling because real wages have been down since 1973.
The American people don't need to be told this.
They're living it.
The Republican primary campaign does not have to exclusively be about the economy
because everybody is living it, and everybody knows that Obama is faking the recovery and trying to turn it into a virtual dreamland,
and it isn't flying.

END TRANSCRIPT

Related Links

• CBS News: Santorum Argues for Religion in Government
  
  
• Washington Post: Rick Santorum Shows He’s the Wrong Man to be President
  
  
• Washington Post: Rick Santorum’s Rhetoric Goes to the Extreme - Eugene Robinson
  
  
• Right Scoop: Santorum: Romney Uniquely Unqualified to Take on President Obama
  
  
• National Journal: Santorum Argues for Religion in Government
  
  
• Washington Post: Enough of Rick Santorum’s Sermons - Richard Cohen
  
  

[livius]

Nobody’s trying to kill Santorum. He can take care of that himself.

The problem is that he is exactly as establishment and big-government as Romney, and the social conservative thing was the only thing that he had going for him. But now that’s beginning to wear thin and he simply is not offering an alternative to Romney - because he can’t.

[editor-surveyor]

Ease off the vest!

He has to wear the sweaters because he suffers from chronic pneumonia/pleurisy

[gov_bean_ counter]

Limbaugh and Levin have spent the last month extracting Santorum's foot from his mouth and telling us what Rick really meant to say.

It is unfortunate that someone with so much education could come off as an inarticulate buffoon as often as he does.

[editor-surveyor]

>> “God, how did we get into this mess?” <<

.
Palin got cold feet! - (I might have too, if I were her)
.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

Hey, I’m a supporter, I like him! I’m just trying to have a little fun, that’s all.

[Yosemitest]

"Romney's big numbers came from the most liberal cities in the state. Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Kalamazoo."

CORRECTION for you:

Romney's big numbers came from the most liberalCORRUPT cities in the state; Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Kalamazoo.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

And puddin hearted “conservatives” like yourself are so terrified of what the democrats might do that your first response is to try and please them.

Um, what?

Moderates are nothing but cowering dogs slinking along behind the democrats begging for crumbs.

I was talking about independents, not moderates. Why make this leap? Are you trying to be insulting?

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

-——I can’t for one moment believe that Santorum scares the left. It’s illogical. If Santorum wins the election, his brand of social conservatism will not play well to the masses. Obama would crush Santorum, especially among independents.——

Believe what you want, but the nation is conservative by a good margin, socially as well as fiscally. The cities and coasts are libertine, but Republicans will never get those votes.

[Darren McCarty]

The part that surprised me was Northern Michigan. The only think I can think of there would be absentee voters which broke heavily against Santorum statewide. I was a little surprised at Jackson and Livingston County as well because of the social conservatives there. Could be the absentees there too.

[cripplecreek]

I was actually surprised to see Santorum win Kent county. That’s Dick DeVos territory and I would have expected that one to go to Romney.

[cripplecreek]

Most of our state political operatives have second homes up north. I’m sure they make sure someone lives there to vote and it only takes a few votes to move those elections one way or another due to the sparse population.

Some years back I learned that Debbie Stabenow owned the house next door to me but had likely never laid eyes on the place. I asked a realtor who was selling the place about it. She wouldn’t say who owned it but did say that the owner wasn’t making any money so there was probably a political reason for owning it.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Believe what you want, but the nation is conservative by a good margin, socially as well as fiscally. The cities and coasts are libertine, but Republicans will never get those votes.

Say Santorum gets the nomination. Okay, great. Social conservatives can be proud. But then Obama goes on the attack, and the big front, of course, will be the Culture Wars. When that happens, anything the media is throwing at Santorum today will sound complimentary in comparison. You Google Santorum yet? That's just a warm-up.

Santorum will get slaughtered among independents. You remark that the cities and coasts are libertine; perhaps, but even among independents on the cities and coasts, there will be more than enough independents demographically to overwhelm whatever social conservative-leaning independents might reside in the rest of the country . . . and come out for Santorum.

The math just isn't there.

[LeopoldvonRanke]

Could still come out of this with more MI delegates. Heh. That would really suck for Mitt.

I thought Rick Santorum was supposed to just fold from all the spending directed at him.

[LeopoldvonRanke]

He was up big in Kent too, but fell off a little towards the end.

[Yosemitest]

Read how desperate the "Establishment Republicans" are:

All Heck Breaks Loose on Primary Day

Is the GOP Elite Ready to Concede?

Look at the winners the "Establishment Republicans" have picked before:

The "Establishment Republicans" rate a

[LeopoldvonRanke]

I think we can fight the culture wars and win.

As has been said, the majority of the country is conservative and has clamored for a conservative for a long time. Running Romney vs Obama isn’t going to help us. If we win - we lose because Romney is going to push Romneycare.

Newt - 14 states will have gone by, more than a third - with him winning just one - South Carolina. He’s too far behind to catch up.

So who does that leave? Santorum’s our best chance of beating Obama in 2012 and getting some semblence of a conservative. Santorum has been outpolling Obama in the head to head - and has a chance in the swing states like PA, OH, WI and IA, that are going to be crucial in a presidential election.

[newzjunkey]

So you can't actually argue about Santorum's IDEAS not being big gov't, the point of the post you replied to, so you plead some score from a think tank.

Nice dodge there.

Tinkering with the tax code, sabre-rattling at Iran, pandering to Labor ... Are people excited for his proposals or is it all "moral me and family?"

Can't explain his vote for Obama's first Supreme Court pick, Sonya Sotomayor, when Clinton appointed her to the 2nd Circuit--McCain voted NO. With a vote like that, how can Santorum be trusted on judges?

Can't explain how his mighty moral compass allowed him to live in Virginia and use $72,000 in local Pennsylvania school board funds to "home school" his kids. He got into Congress by attacking a Dem who had taken up residency in Virginia. (Oh but the Senate is different he claims.)

Introducing and voting for $550 million extra for Amtrak on top of the $900 million budget? Not just that but he cut a TV ad that he was middle-of-the-road, not fiscally conservative enough for the Bush White House on the issue because you put Pennsylvanian's first.

Can't explain his heading The K Street Project as a Senate leader, with Tom DeLay in the House, to build GOP ties with lobbyists--part of that crony capitalist swamp the Tea Party hates, which is how he landed on his feet after PA voters fired him.

Can't explain why his "Good Neighbor" "charity" spent its money on aides, fundraisers and lobbyists rather than grants. Can't explain why his Leadership PAC gave so little money to candidates. Can't explain the half million dollar mortgage he got from a private bank run by a major contributor while apparently not qualified for their program.

Can't explain Santorum's 18-point loss, the biggest loss for an incumbent Senator in over 25 years.

Is he electable? 18 points is very serious; he lost 61% of women. When reelected in 2000 he still didn't win among women. He won because of a strong turn out with men, mirroring W nationally. Santorum even got into the Senate, and just barely, during Newt's 1994 "Republican Revolution."

When on his own, rather than part of a surge, it's unclear he can win and very clear Democrats know how to clean his clock despite the power of incumbency.

Santorum supporters are very much "see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil" with their guy just because of the "moral me and family" push. He's also a lawyer and career politician.

This is the worst primary I can remember.

[Mila]

"He has to wear the sweaters because he suffers from chronic pneumonia/pleurisy "

Do you have a source for that? I seem to remember him giving a different account to Laura Ingraham.

[editor-surveyor]

The source was his own mouth, in 1996, at a fundraiser in Pleasanton, California.

[Sun]

“Santorum: What an absolutely great night!”

http://www.therightscoop.com/santorum-what-an-absolutely-great-night/

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