Posted on 02/07/2012 7:11:39 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Killer material in Minnesota on the eve of the big vote in the midwest. I tried to find longer clips online but these snippets from CNN are the best I can do. ABC:
“Gov. Romney is dead wrong on the issue of the day and he should not be the nominee of the party,” Santorum said in a hotel ballroom across the street from the hospital, adding the issue of health care is “central to our country, central to this race specifically why Gov. Romney is absolutely incapable of making the case against Obamacare successfully.”…
“The problem is, we have a candidate who is running and seen by the media as the prohibitive favorite, who is the worst possible person in the field to put up on this most fundamental issue in this campaign, and that is Gov. Romney,” Santorum said. “The plan he put together in Massachusetts is in fact ‘ObamaCare’ on the state level.”…
Santorum said the two plans have similar levels, using terms like “gold, silver, and bronze,” and in possibly his most aggressive attack he said they both use “government panels to dictate quality and cost containment,” and for the second day in a row brought up the controversial term “death panels.”
The candidate told the crowd the vulnerable could be at risk under the administration’s plan and are at risk under Romney’s plan because the government could “ultimately decide to ration care.”
Romney should win in Colorado tomorrow (he won big there four years ago), but Minnesota is anyone’s game and Missouri is a binary “Romney vs. Santorum” choice for non-Paul voters thanks to Newt’s failure to qualify for the ballot there. Even Gingrich conceded today that “I think that Santorum’s going to have a pretty good day tomorrow and he will have earned it,” and we already know how worried Romney is. Let me repeat a question Ed asked last night, because if Santorum wins MN and MO, you’ll hear it all day long on Wednesday. Is he the “Not Romney” in the race now after Newt’s Florida flameout? More importantly, how does he convince Gingrich of that before Super Tuesday? Newt’s going to point to his South Carolina win as proof that he’s the “southern candidate” and should stick around for primaries in that region, but if Santorum starts beating him everywhere else, then you have a true “Not Romney” nightmare — a conservative split in which both candidates have bases of support that guarantee they’ll carry the split forward for months. That problem could have been solved by South Carolinians had they united behind Santorum instead of Newt, but … alas:
This is why I keep returning to the idea that Gingrich’s post-Iowa resilience and temporary South Carolina revival ultimately made it easier, not harder, for Romney to coast to the nomination. Romney was always guaranteed a strong showing in the Northeast and the Mountain West, and his moderate baggage (and Mormonism) always ensured that he would be vulnerable in the old Confederacy. The question throughout has been whether any of the not-Romney alternatives could win outside the South, thus transforming a regional protest against the frontrunner into a national campaign. And once the not-Romney alternatives were winnowed to Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, I think it became clear which of the two men stood a better chance of competing with Romney in states like Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Now Santorum has a chance to prove that point. But Silver’s scenario is the longest of long shots: Because the voters of South Carolina gave Gingrich the crucial first crack at Romney, Santorum’s moment is almost certainly coming round too late.
The only way to break the Gingrich/Santorum deadlock now, I think, is if Newt’s bitterness at Romney boils over to the point where he decides he’d rather sacrifice his own candidacy and quit simply to make Romney’s life harder. After watching that presser in Vegas on Saturday night, I wouldn’t put it past him. Problem is, the kamikaze scenario conflicts with Newt’s legendary sense of himself as a man of destiny who’s fated to change the world. Is he really going to drop that dream to help a guy to whom he once referred as a “junior partner” in the hope — but hardly the assurance — that it’ll sink his new archenemy? Hmmmm.
In the states Willard the liberal has won the voting was down from 2008. In SC, where Willard got his ass handed to him by Newt Gingrich, voting was way up from 2008. So break it down. Willard the liberal can not get out the conservative base. Conservatives can’t stand him. Neither can Santorum, at least in the South he can’t. Newt Gingrich can and did. The only state to have a bigger turnout so far from 2008 was SC! This is never mentioned on the Willard the liberal drooling Faux News Channel. It is damn sure mentioned on CNN and the liberal channels and they are eating it up as proof Willard does not have a prayer in a general election and they are exactly right. If another RINO is crammed down the throats of the republican base, Obama is reelected. Newt or Santorum can beat Hussein. Obama-light can not.
Frankly, I don't think he does.
There seems to be a lot that Romney simply doesn't know.
haaaaa. Shush, you !! Or else.
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