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Bernie Goldberg: Time to Go, Rick
BernardGoldberg.com ^ | March 23, 2012 | Bernard Goldberg

Posted on 03/23/2012 10:12:57 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

It’s time for Rick Santorum to go. He’s getting more whiny than usual and it’s getting tiresome.

Like Newt Gingrich, he’s not going to win the nomination, and I suspect he knows it. But I get the impression that he doesn’t really care who wins in November – unless it’s him.

Where did I get an idea like that? From Rick Santorum himself.

On the campaign trail in San Antonio, he said: “You win by giving people a choice,” You win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who’s just going to be a little different than the person in there.”

He’s got every right to take a shot at Mitt Romney. And he’s got every right to believe he’s stands a better chance of defeating President Obama than does Romney, even if he’s wrong. But what he said next was just plain petulant.

“If they’re going to be a little different,” he said, “we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk of what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate for the future.” That was a reference to a Romney adviser’s comment that “everything changes” when the campaign begins in earnest in the fall. “It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch,” the adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said. “You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again.”

Usually the politically dumb statements come from Romney himself. Does this gaffe feed into the image that Romney is a waffler who will say anything that serves his political purposes at the moment? Yes. It’s Romney’s biggest weakness and for good reason: he is a waffler. But Santorum went way too far in saying Romney is no better than President Obama, prompting this entirely accurate headline in the Washington Post: Santorum says voters might as well re-elect Obama because Romney offers little difference

(Hit with a barrage of criticism from Republicans for his comment, Santorum now says the “we” in “we might as well stay with what we have …” refers to “we, the American people” — the American electorate — who he says would figure, why not stay with President Obama if Romney is the GOP nominee. ”I would never vote for Barack Obama over any Republican and to suggest otherwise is preposterous,” Santorum explained. This is how politicians walk back their mistakes. I suspect no one will buy it.)

I could never picture Rick Santorum in the Oval Office. He always struck me as the annoying goody two shoes kid in high school who you wanted to slap around simply on principle. Then when he began sharing his religious beliefs with the American people I started believing that if this guy could snap his fingers or wave his magic wand, he’d turn the United States into a theocracy. That may not be a fair characterization, of course, but that’s the impression he gave me – and I suspect it’s the impression he gave a lot of others who will decide if Mr. Obama stays or goes.

Those of us who want Barack Obama to go should now also want Mr. Santorum to go.


TOPICS: Campaign News; Parties; Polls
KEYWORDS: newt; obama; romney; santorum
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

We forget the track record of the GOP at our peril this years #2 will be the frontrunner in 2016


21 posted on 03/24/2012 4:16:55 AM PDT by scottteng (Tax government employees til they quit and find something useful to do)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Stuff it, Goldberg.


22 posted on 03/24/2012 4:30:09 AM PDT by dontgivein
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To: moonhawk

)))))))) I started believing that if this guy could snap his fingers or wave his magic wand, he’d turn the United States into a theocracy. That may not be a fair characterization, of course, but that’s the impression he gave me ))))))

Good grief, Mr. Goldberg. What a nasty insinuation about Santorum. You conservative secularists are giving conservatism a bad name.

Santorum has some dreadful faults, to say the least, but he is not a theocrat. He is a smart, articulate, experienced politician making a devastating case against Romney/Obama/Care. The more Santorum punishes Romney on socialized medicine, the more Mittens will be forced to back away from his health care boondoggle.


23 posted on 03/24/2012 4:49:28 AM PDT by heye2monn
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Amen. Santorum’s naval-gazing blathering has become intolerable.


24 posted on 03/24/2012 4:55:09 AM PDT by jilliane
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To: jilliane

He’s gazing at the U.S. Navy? Why?


25 posted on 03/24/2012 5:06:59 AM PDT by heye2monn
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What this is really all about is a hurry to get rid of the other candidates.

It is going to get really ugly until the non Romneys are out.

The pressure and mud slinging will heat up.


26 posted on 03/24/2012 5:11:40 AM PDT by dforest
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To: heye2monn

LOL...good one! oops.


27 posted on 03/24/2012 5:12:27 AM PDT by jilliane
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To: SoConPubbie

‘zackly.


28 posted on 03/24/2012 5:14:41 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Beware the Sweater Vest)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I think we are going to have to start our own party, Then McCain, Dole and all the other rhino’s wood never get elected. I am very mad that Romney is running 3 to 5 million dollars negative ads. I would support any Conservative in the race, Rick or Newt. I will not vote, campaign or finance another Rhino.


29 posted on 03/24/2012 5:32:44 AM PDT by man from mars
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To: jilliane
"Santorum’s naval-gazing blathering has become intolerable."

You've nailed it, there. A good candidate picks a few key issues and focuses his entire campaign on them. For Reagan, it was three: beat the Russians, rebuild the military, and cut taxes. Santorum seems to pontificate, endlessly, on any question, no matter how trivial, that someone in the media poses. The result is that no one knows what the core focus of his presidency would be.

I tend to like Santorum as a person. However, there is a reason he lost his last election by 18 percent. Besides, he gazes at his belly button too much, too.

30 posted on 03/24/2012 5:43:07 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (Galileo: In science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of one individual)
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To: man from mars

Do we really have to stoop to discussing “rhino’s wood” here?


31 posted on 03/24/2012 5:44:02 AM PDT by PalmettoMason (South Carolinians need to start choosing a primary challenger to Nikki Haley NOW!!!!!!!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Stay in Rick. Stay in Newt.

The goal now is a brokered convention.

If there is a brokered convention, it means the RINO elite have lost control of the situation.

The worst that could happen in floor fight is that they shove another RINO down our throats like they always do.

But there is a chance that they might lose that fight too.

32 posted on 03/24/2012 5:55:36 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the sociopath.)
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To: Catsrus
Judge not lest ye be judged....and then you judge me! No surprise you would support "Do as I say, not as I do" Rick Santorum.

Apparently Rick thinks it's okay to take money from a school district in PA to homeschool his kids in a house he owns in VA. I think that is theft.

I can't stand the hypocrit, Rick Santorum!

33 posted on 03/24/2012 6:49:00 AM PDT by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: SoConPubbie

Well, Mitt is going to win. He is the only one left who has a realistic shot at the delegates. And if he falls short of the required delegates by a couple hundred, where do you think the unbounds would go?

The third place guy is out at this point, and unless the 2nd and first are within a few percentage points in delegate totals, the vote will go to the guy in first. If it gets brokered, they will either choose the guy in 1st or someone not in the race, but since Jeb Bush just endorsed Romney and there isnt a groundswell for someone like Daniels, I dont see a possibility that anyone but Mitt wins.


34 posted on 03/24/2012 7:00:23 AM PDT by Raider Sam (They're on our left, right, front, and back. They aint gettin away this time!)
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To: norwaypinesavage

Wish I could give you a thumbs up “like” button...exactly how I feel. His Illinois loser speech was obnoxiously long. Exactly how I felt/feel about Obama’s intoxication with his own words. P.S. I oops’d on the navel spelling; thanks for not mentioning it. haha :-)


35 posted on 03/24/2012 7:04:34 AM PDT by jilliane
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The more the “establishment types” like Bernie say someone has to go, the more inclined I am to tell the establishment to whizz-off.


36 posted on 03/24/2012 7:14:02 AM PDT by Keith in Iowa (Willard Romney, purveyor of the world's finest bullmitt. | FR Class of 1998 |)
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To: moonhawk
If either drops out, some percentage of their votes will go to Romney, so best they both stay in.

It isn't working that way in Louisiana. Gingirch's presence in the race is preventing Santorum from going over 50%, taking all the delegates and denying Romney any delegates.

37 posted on 03/24/2012 1:28:35 PM PDT by Kazan (Mitt Romney: The greater of two evils)
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To: Politics4US
How can people vote for Romney after the videos have come out that he’s not a Republican from 2002?

Most conservatives aren't voting for him. But, any viable alternative to Romney is consistently ripped apart by one conservative faction or another, allowing the moderate/liberal wing of the part to pick the nominee and paving the way for Romney to be the nominee.

38 posted on 03/24/2012 1:32:55 PM PDT by Kazan (Mitt Romney: The greater of two evils)
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To: ReneeLynn
Rick gets out you vote for Newt. Bye bye Romney AND Obama.

The day Rick drops out is the day Romney clinches the nomination.

There is no scenario where Gingrich wins the nomination. It's pathetic to hear of his supporters pawning their possessions (and eating cat food?) to give money to a campaign that has been over for weeks. It's like watching a little old lady being conned out of her money by a corrupt TV evangelist.

39 posted on 03/24/2012 1:37:37 PM PDT by Kazan (Mitt Romney: The greater of two evils)
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To: norwaypinesavage
However, there is a reason he lost his last election by 18 percent.

There is also a reason he won twice in a blue state.

40 posted on 03/24/2012 1:39:33 PM PDT by Kazan (Mitt Romney: The greater of two evils)
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