Posted on 04/13/2012 10:18:18 AM PDT by Josh Painter
Rick Santorum dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday. Almost to a column, editorial and news account, the analysis centered on Santorum’s somewhat successful capture of conservative voters.
And there lies the mystery. How could a man seemingly so opposite of conservative have entranced so many voters who label themselves just that?
The easy answer is that as someone who made his religion such a prominent part of his campaign strategy... religious types who tend toward conservatism perhaps felt they’d found their man.
[...]
Indeed, if we ignore for a moment how very anti-conservative it is for any candidate to coddle certain commercial sectors, the simple truth is that to the extent that manufacturing jobs were ever glorious (a big reach on its own considering the proud history of sons and daughters of factory workers moving away from manufacturing locales), the very investors whose capital creates those jobs feel it’s yesterday’s news. That investors no longer value factory work explains why they migrated to China, and why a rising China has begun to similarly shed those jobs. For Santorum to then say he’ll bring them back not only smacks of a controlling, central planning gene, but it also speaks to a candidate divorced from reality in the economic sense. If Santorum were to actually succeed in reducing the manufacturing tax rate to zero, this wouldn’t alter the all-important investor perception of work that is no longer valued from a labor-intensive point of view.
Happily Santorum’s candidacy is in the rear-view mirror. Not so happy, however, is what his candidacy said about the beliefs of conservatives. If Santorum was truly their guy, it seems a movement once animated by the sunny, economically advanced dynamism of Ronald Reagan has taken a giant, impoverishing leap backwards.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
No wet work though. That's usually not all that practical ~
The Dede Scozzafava thing was not nearly that simple. The GOP rallied for her in the primary, the party took sides BECAUSE she was less conservative. Even after the facts were out there Newt backed her to the hilt and brought other “conservatives” along for the ride.
He was wrong and when he knew he was wrong he doubled down.
....
Newt is still 100X better than Romney though
Oh, gack!
You holier-than-thou hypocrites make me want to puke. Jesus did not teach unforgiveness.
And you Rick Rollers always trot out Dee Dee when Santorum not only supported Specter over Toomey in the primary, he even supporter Specter for president over Steve Forbes and several other conservatives. Hypocrite.
The economy is a lot more important than global warming, and Santorum has the voting record of a big spending porker.
As far as dividing the vote, Santorum got in the race after Newt did, and as quick as he got out of it, his biggest backers threw their money behind Romney.
Santorum was just one of Mitt’s stalking horses. He stayed in just long enough to keep Gingrich, a Reagan conservatives, from stopping Romney.
“seemingly so opposite of conservative”
His ACU rating was higher than most other Republicans in the House while he was there. Let me guess the person who wrote this will back liberal Romney to the hilt.
Santorum will make a comeback when 90% of children are born out of wedlock, gay weddings are in 50 states, crime is considered equal opportunity, and no middle class jobs are available.
I could never get past his past endorsement of Mitt Romney to even look at his voting record. Claiming that Mitt Romney is a "real conservative" was enough for me to just say no.
I would have voted for him in the general though. Besides he does look like Jerry Seinfeld.
I cannot (at least not at this point) vote for Mitt Romney. This will most likely be the second time I refuse to vote for a President. I never say never but the chances are very high I will not be voting this time. Even if he wee to pick a Conservative VP.
Sarah already voted for Newt! Because Newt is the only conservative and the record and know how to get the job done! And the ONLY one who can beat Obama on his worst day!
And I’ll guarantee mitt ain’t getting in, he hasn’t been vetted and he is the easiest of all candidates because his record is one of a liberal - his exposure will be brutal. And he won’t have the media on his side. A vote for him is truly one for barry. It’s not rocket science to see that. He can’t even debate and has NOTHING to debate him with. His ‘I’m a businessman’ means diddle squat and laughable. So the fearful voters will get exactly what they are fearful of - all on their own doing.
We have a Patriot, a conservative candidate who they snub - so may they live the rest of their life in fear. They don’t even deserve America how shabbily they treat her.
Santorum relates to us on an emotional level. He shares our frustrations about cultural rot. He laments the loss of good paying jobs that undergirded American families in decades past. Some of this was unavoidable, but many companies left our shores b/c of high taxes and austere regulations. He is the antithesis of an internationalist, and people such as the Forbes folks can’t relate to the anger of people toward companies and government who used their sacrifices in wars to survive and thrive. These same entities now explain from their ivory towers that manufacturing job losses are fine, b/c WE would be the people who would manage the FINANCING of products made elsewhere. What we see today is the difference between a living, vibrant human, and one gutted and stuffed by a taxidermist. THAT is why Santorum is so loved by the people who *get* what he is saying. Bob
I considered Newt. I considered his support for DeDe Schozzafava. I considered his global warming commercial with Nancy Pelosi. I considered his multiple divorces and affairs. I considered the way he botched Clinton's impeachment. I decided he wasn't any more of a conservative than Rick Santorum.
And all you need for proof is how many more delegates, states and votes Santorum won over Newt. If Newt were such a wonderful conservative, he would have certainly outperformed Santorum. Newt was certainly better known and certainly more visible. Santorum's success only illustrates what an unelectable candidate Newt truly was. Conservatives preferred an unknown to Newt Gingrich.
You mean in 2016?
Santorum’s success only illustrates what an unelectable candidate Mitt truly was.
The establishment loves mitt, hates newt.
Are you old enough to know what he did while in Congress?
Santorum was just one of Mitt’s stalking horses. He stayed in just long enough to keep Gingrich, a Reagan conservatives, from stopping Romney.
Absolutely, he was. He owns the downfall in our country because of this. His 'taking one for the team' will affect him and his family. He will truly reap what he has sown. That stain will forever taint him and when his children get older they will know. And his supporters now has that same taint on them. I don't even overlook their clueless in seeing him as the stalking horse because of their high and mighty attitude they wouldn't listen. They were being duped and it was painful to watch.
I'm just thankful the warrior candidate, Newt, stayed in. I'll support him to the end.
What you are saying is a joke. Santorum and I LIVED through much better times, and you have swallowed the leftist meme that it was never so. I KNOW it was. Bob
Because if a candidate says “GOD” or “JESUS” at anytime during their campaign, the truly gullible will only hear those two words, not look at what they did while in office nor listen to what they are saying. Just those two words uttered from a slick politican put about 30% of those that call themselves conservatives into a deep sleep... kinda like hypnosis...
2016 sound about right. Our continuous slouching towards Gomorrah should be in full swing around then.
THOSE “conservatives” believe that a society can thrive divorced from any shred of ultimate morality. They now wonder why they are thought of as the enemy by a people who never learned, “Thou shalt not steal!” Bob
Are you always this dippy? Rick LIES and his LIES against Newt is unforgivable. He only got votes because of his lies against Newt because he has NO record of his own.
Consider this - you were duped - so you already showed you are unteachable and stuck on stupid.
You are absolutely correct.
Mitt will never drop out, never. EVIL never does the right thing, it’s incapable of doing it.
No, it doesn't. A government war on manufacturing explains it. You may not like Santorum trying to pick winners and losers, but someone needs to take a hard look at the government imposed policies that drive manufacturing out and start clearing out the regultory weeds that has made this a hostile place to try and do anything.
Given the choice to build your factory in California, say, a place where they don't want you, and country "x" where they do want you, you can't be blamed for considering the move. Santorum wanted to solve that problem.
And whoever is the next president, we'd better solve it. When you ship your manufacturing abroad, jobs and technological competence goes with it.
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