Posted on 02/02/2012 5:31:46 PM PST by writer33
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum commands a lot of respect in the Pikes Peak region.
And that support was hammered home Wednesday evening when Focus on the Family’s founder, Dr. James Dobson, made a surprise appearance at a Santorum rally to announce his endorsement.
“I’ve been watching you,” Dobson said to Santorum, with a quiet smile on his face. “We need you in the Oval Office.”
Santorum grinned broadly, and the thousand people at the rally stood and cheered.
And the senator told them solemnly, “God called me to do this.”
The event was Santorum’s second in the Pikes Peak region on Wednesday, during a campaign swing through Colorado. He stopped first in Woodland Park, where supporters filled the Ute Pass Cultural Center to capacity. So many people showed up that organizers worried about violating the fire code, and the campaign moved its evening rally to Mr. Biggs Family Fun Center, which had a much more room than the original location.
(Excerpt) Read more at gazette.com ...
Catholic spammers have taken over the the Religion Forum, and moral degeneracy is endorsed in Newt Gingrich. Never thought I’d see the day...
I have no doubt that called Rick to try. But He did not annoint Rick or Rick would not be losing!
15 posted on Thursday, February 02, 2012 8:06:38 PM by bimboeruption: “What’s with the hateful comments directed at Christians? I can’t believe what’s happening on the Free Republic lately.”
Considering you’re from the Class of 1998, you’ve been here long enough to see lots of things, including how Huckabee got treated. I certainly do remember complaints about him, but I don’t remember this level of vitriol directed toward conservative Christians in 2007 and 2008 — perhaps because several other candidates, not just Huckabee, were open-and-out evangelicals.
However, maybe my memory is wrong.
I try to be fair here. If I were a Gingrich supporter, how would I react seeing my candidate’s marital history dragged all over the media? If I were a Roman Catholic, I would be much more willing to presume the legitimacy of the decision of the Church to accept Gingrich’s third marriage as a legitimate marriage. And as I’ve said numerous times, there is a piece on the internet crossposted on Free Republic and authored by the pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church of San Diego which I find helpful in addressing concerns about the sincerity of Gingrich’s repentance.
A Pastoral View of Newt Gingrich
By Rev. Jim Garlow
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2822096/posts
I think the Gingrich supporters have reason to be annoyed at the way some Santorum supporters have behaved, and vice versa. I don’t see Gingrich or Santorum behaving the way some of their supporters behave. That’s good, because if we’re going to defeat Romney and then Obama, we need to realize that we’re in this together.
There are good reasons a conservative evangelical or conservative Roman Catholic may choose to support Gingrich. I respect that.
However, if Gingrich wins the presidency he’s going to have to address the fact that there are conservatives supporting him because they don’t like “preachiness” or an emphasis on personal morality. I’ve read enough of Gingrich that I believe he understands the need for a moral foundation for society, unlike some of his backers.
Long-term, I am seriously concerned about the anti-Christian spirit being voiced in conservative circles, not just here on Free Republic. A shift is underway among younger conservatives, and it’s not friendly toward social issues. Too many young conservatives are buying into a form of conservatism which is more libertarian than conservative, and that needs to be addressed.
I used to listen regularly to his radio show.
From a practical matter, no matter how Godly Rick Santorum is, he cannot win. Dobson’s attacking of Newt’s wife was just plain hateful. Rather than being righteous losers, we need to get Obama out of office. Some Christians have a purist, nihalistic quality about them, and I don’t know for a fact that Dobson is one of them, but he could be.
Why would a Christian endorse a candidate who cannot win?
Santorum does seem to be getting the good endorsements.
If the trend continues in the gallup tracking poll, in another 4 days Santorum will actually pass Gingrich. Will you then be calling for Gingrich to drop out and support Santorum?
This isn’t a prediction on my part. Just an observation. Newt could turn things around tomorrow. Maybe we can buy him a trampoline.
Rick has come to his own — he has his own self-appointed spammers.
“We NEED him and nutcase to drop out. They aren’t doing us any favors..”
There is a school of thought out there that Santorum staying in actually hurts Romney, cause many of the Evangelicals backing Santorum will reluctantly back Romney cause they can’t stomach Gingrich with his personal baggage. Plus, keeping Santorum in keeps two guys attacking Romney, and Rick only gets 10% to 15% of the vote anyway. In states like SC, his percentage didn’t really hurt Newt. Another thing-if it’s down to just Newt & Mitt, then the guns will REALLY come out after Newt to take him out. I kind of think it’s a good insurance policy to keep Santorum around.
As for nut job Ron Paul, he’s not getting out regardless who asks him to. In addition, a lot of his voters are independents and moderate types who like his anti-war anti-U.S. stance. Many of those voters would either go to Romney or not show up at all, so Paul getting out would probably be a wash.
Bottom line-I’m with Newt, but cautiously. Newt can win states with 4 in the race-he proved it in S.C. I heard today he made some campaign staff shake-ups and is trying to be better disciplined and stay more on message. If these changes help him get it together, then he can be the anti-Romney choice regardless of what the other 2 guys do.
There’s a lot of good stuff I read from time to time at FOTF, but sometimes Dobson does a little more harm than good. I remember in 2008, he said Fred Thompson wasn’t Christian enough for him, which soured me some towards Dr. D. And Santorum, granted, I agree with him on social issues 100%, but we’re electing a President, not a preacher. If Newt has repented for his misdeeds, well, isn’t it Christian to believe in redemption? Certainly, if Santoroum had a better shot, I’d be behind him. But he doesn’t, and I’m fearing he’s doing more harm than good right now, and helping the Flipster get the nomination by staying in.
Dobson endorsed Gingrich about a week after the Texas conference and two days before the South Carolina primary.
I was aware of the endorsement by the leaders of the Family Research Council, which is closely related to Dobson, but somehow I missed Dobson’s official endorsement, which is reported here:
Also, while the endorsement wasn't made official in Texas, NGat is right that Dobson was supporting Santorum and criticizing Gingrich then.
I'm not posting the Politico link since 1) it could easily be interpreted as “bashing” of Gingrich, which I do not want to do, and 2) Politico could not get Dobson to confirm on-the-record the reports of what he had said in the closed meeting. Dobson may have subsequently gone on-the-record with the comments quoted by Politico, but I would need to research that, and I've been a reporter long enough not to put too much trust in unconfirmed reports of what somebody has said off-the-record.
Anyway, NGat, you're right (on the important parts), I'm wrong, and I need to thank you for the correction.
That’s from his 2006 campaign. What’s your problem?
I love Ron Paul.. if we could combine his ideology of freedom and that of a strong military defense stately, we would have a winner. Other than that old fart being delusional, I get it..
Gallup tracking now has Gingrich at 25%, Santorum at 17% — within the margin of error, but admittedly at the hairy edge. Trending in Santorum’s direction though.
IN head-to-head with Obama, Gallup now has Gingrich trailing 53-41.
In swing-state comparisons a few days ago, Gringrich trailed Obama by 14%, 54-40, while Santorum only trails 7%, 51-44.
Rasmussen just did a poll that shows Santorum is now virtually tied with Obama, 46-48%, while Gingrich trails Obama by 8%.
There are some people (even here on FR) who hate God as much as they do democrats. Unfortunately, we have to put up with them. Best thing to do is just ignore them. They just want attention.
Excuse the auto correct from my phone..but I wish RP wasn’t RP.. we would have a winner. Mental illness is rampant..
Why go through it? The one abiding rule of the Newt Gingrich presidential run is that nothing that happened before October of 2011 is of any concern to us.
Wow, I always thought Woodland Park was full of hippies.
We had an entire drawn-out thread discussing the 2006 flyer a week ago — in it’s own thread, as we do for items of interest.
Posting it randomly in threads about other articles is “spam”, a distraction from the discussion of the article.
These numbers are before the Dobson endorsement.
Secondly, no one knows what the future holds. We are only 5% into this primary. Romney is starting to explode and has McCain out there saying he doesn't want any more debates (because he's scared of blowing it) He might have to get a TelePrompTer. Maybe he can borrow obamas. Remember, even if Newt got all of Santorums votes, which he would not have gotten, Newt still would not have won fl.
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