Ho hum
Oh, dear. I like Mr. Santorum a lot, but as a candidate, he has not shown much staying power. He’s like a person who signs up for marathon after marathon, but never completes more than 8 miles of one.
Rick is an ass...... a loser ass.
Depending on who runs, I’d vote for him again. He’s imperfect but head and shoulders above Romney in my book.
Nice guy, solid on the social issues, a little squishy on big government, though.
But, frankly, he just doesn’t have the charisma.
I want Allen West. He’s not afraid, and he’s got charisma.
Oh, and he’s a CITIZEN.
uh Rick
you did a fine job
the problem is more than that
yes, there is a perception that all Republicans are bloodless old white men
yes there is a perception that all Republicans are hillbilly bubbas (depending on which caricature suits the Democrats better)
what needs to happen is that Republicans get a rep for being people who are of integrity, know how to address problems in a smart and frugal way and who don’t get played for fools by the Democrats
that explains why I keep getting the emails...
Santorum and three or four more conservative candidates in the primaries will give us Jeb Bush or Chris Cristie as the nominee.
I don’t think Rick could ever win the nomination, but he could pull enough votes to help the RINO candidates win as McCain and Romney won while conservatives split their votes among several candidates.
Conservatives better decide on a candidate early in 2016, or we’ll get another RINO.
To combat Romney ~ early 2012 we had two losers : Newt and Santorum both failures with not surprising results.
I fear we will see the same repeat with Rubio in the Romney slot this time,
Here we go agin....
Free Republic is out of the activism business these days, but between now and say july 2015 shoud reactivate the force and ability.
Specifically, Free Republic should begin active discussion on the best way to design and then implement a conservative presidential primary. By the time the 2016 Republican primary is held up there should be one preselected conservative candidate.
The debacle of 2012 must not be repeated. So long as conservatives kill each other in the pre Republican primary battles the dissention will again assure no conservative Republican Presidential candidate.
Santorum is one of the mostly good guys.
He has his shortcomings, but of the last round of candidates I would rate him right below Palin, and maybe Rick Perry.
Would very much like to see Palin and Cruz both run next time.
The dude has a point re: the obtuseness of the GOPe, but who doesn’t?
As a presidential candidate, however, he’s a liability for the cause—both playing into the worst stereotype about the priggish Republican and splitting the conservative vote in a way that helps the chosen RINO candidate.
In both ways, his ego is the problem.
Good God NO! He’s a waste of time and money!
And in the last two election cycles, we did.
Besides, Rick is "entitled" to the nomination under the GOPe rule of advancing the runner-up in the previous election cycle. This system worked out well for Reagan and Bush I. Not so well for Dole, McCain and Romney.
We will see several of the 2012 retreads trying to make waves and gin up support for 2016.
Santorum doesn’t bring much more than he brought in 2012. He was only semi-successful as the go-to-instead-of-Romney when all of the other contenders fell off their bandwagons.
The whole primary debates stage had lackluster wannabes.
Most of the ‘new’ names circulating for 2016 are not much of an improvement.
Bush? Not another one.
Rubio. Crashing and burning, thanks to his cozying up with Schumer.
Christie. Making more headway with the Dems than with the Right.
Ryan. He is on the amnesty bandwagon with Rubio.
Paul. He is sort of for this, sort of for that, sort of against this, sort of against that.
Palin. Great speaker, but Left, the MSM, the Dems, and the GOPelite continue to try to taint her. And resigning as governor hasn’t helped. Perhaps, she should run for some lesser office first.
Walker. He is getting some praise.
McDonnell. He seems to be having some ethics problems due to questionable spending habits.
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Soon, we will be seeing the ‘x isn’t perfect, but ...’ posts.
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The main question will be whether the conservatives get triangulated again with numerous bandwagon candidates diluting the pool, thus favoring the GOPelite preference.
This all sounds so familiar — because it could easily be a three-peat of 2008 and 2012.
Rick is just not the guy. He should make another Senate run and vote conservative and anti big govt for 6 years and then he might be more credible.
Anybody got a foto of a poodle to post?
As a social conservative, Santorum appealed to me.
However, I humbly suggest that henceforth any politician who uses the word "folks" to describe leftists and statists who are in opposition to the American people should be publicly flogged.