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A Santorum win in Michigan could be chaos for GOP
Reuters ^ | 02/26/2012 | John Whitesides

Posted on 02/26/2012 5:50:17 PM PST by SeekAndFind

The Republican presidential race faces a potential turning point on Tuesday in contests in Arizona and Michigan, where upstart Rick Santorum threatens to plunge an already unpredictable nominating battle into chaos.

Mitt Romney, the former front-runner and presumed nominee, and Santorum are in a close race in Michigan, the state where Romney was raised and his father was an auto executive and popular governor.

A Santorum win there would be a devastating blow to Romney, turning lingering doubts about his ability to win the allegiance of Republican primary voters into a deep panic in the party's senior ranks.

"If Santorum pulls off the upset in Michigan it turns the entire race on its head," said Republican Dan Schnur, an aide to Senator John McCain during his 2000 presidential bid. "There aren't going to be a lot of people who have much use for a front-runner who can't win his home state."

But Republicans worry about the general election viability of Santorum, a staunch conservative who has courted controversy with a burst of comments on social issues like birth control, pre-natal testing and women in the military.

Santorum's rise and Romney's weakness have sparked speculation about more contenders jumping into a Republican race that could last all the way to a brokered convention in August. The Michigan result could shift that speculation into overdrive.

"A Santorum win in Michigan takes all of the talk about a new candidate or a brokered convention and puts it on steroids," Republican strategist Todd Harris said.

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: az2012; danschnur; freeperheadsexplode; gop; mi2012; michigan; primaries; santorum
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To: Patton@Bastogne

You need Carotid surgery stat!
.


41 posted on 02/26/2012 6:23:36 PM PST by editor-surveyor (No Federal Sales Tax - No Way!)
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To: Happy Rain
Not since Ronald Reagan has such an in-your-face unapologetic conservative threatened the corrupt taxpayer raping sweetheart arrangements between the Leftist Democrats and the liberal Republicans.

I think most people forget the Reagan Democrats. I'm sure the RINO elite do so willfully. There still are a lot of Democrats who will vote for a Republican if given a real choice between candidates. There wasn't much difference between McCain and Obammie and even less between Obammie and Rommie.

42 posted on 02/26/2012 6:24:51 PM PST by magslinger (If I wanted to vote for a Commie I would vote for Obammie. He has a chance of winning.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Really? It seems like it would be a win for Santorum, which is sort of like the point of a primary, right?


43 posted on 02/26/2012 6:25:10 PM PST by lurk
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

No. then the two of them need to put whoever has the least delegates as VP, combine into running mates, writing Romney and the elites out of the equation.


44 posted on 02/26/2012 6:27:10 PM PST by MrEdd (Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.)
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To: magslinger

Bingo!

What you said.

“Reagan Democrats” would love a real conservative.

Pro-American. Pro-jobs. Pro-manufacturing.

They would flock back to the GOP, on patriotism alone. Pickup-truck driving rednecks. Have no place voting to Democrats.

Yet, they have been driven to do so, because the GOP does not seem to believe they have the correct ‘pedigree’.

News flash for the GOPe.

DOGS have pedigree.


45 posted on 02/26/2012 6:29:10 PM PST by Cringing Negativism Network ("The door is open" PALIN 2012)
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To: Mariner; Jim Robinson

>> “My prediction, worth squat, is that Romney wins Michigan by 12+pts.
What then?”

.
Z O T ?


46 posted on 02/26/2012 6:29:57 PM PST by editor-surveyor (No Federal Sales Tax - No Way!)
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To: RitaOK
I don't agree with your reasoning to get to that point, but BOY do I ever agree with your conclusion.

CONSERVATIVES IN MICHIGAN NEED TO TURN OUT EN MASSE TUESDAY IN MICHIGAN TO VOTE FOR RICK SANTORUM AND GIVE WILLARD ROMNEY'S CHAMELEON CAMPAIGN (DOWNRIGHT DIRTY AND NASTY) AND GOOD SLAP ACROSS THE RINO CHOPS.

47 posted on 02/26/2012 6:30:27 PM PST by AmericanInTokyo (I liked the FREE REPUBLIC of years on end which NEVER had a problem with Rick Santorum, Conservative)
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To: AD from SpringBay

>> “Repeat after me: a brokered convention for the good of the party!” <<

.
“Springtime for Hitler and Germany...”


48 posted on 02/26/2012 6:32:19 PM PST by editor-surveyor (No Federal Sales Tax - No Way!)
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To: editor-surveyor

Death smiles at us all ... All a Man can do is smile back ... MDM ... Gladiator


49 posted on 02/26/2012 6:32:45 PM PST by Patton@Bastogne (Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin in 2012 ! DD)
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To: Lazlo in PA; All

Did anyone else notice the talk of brokered convention gets louder every time the GOP-E’s Chosen One, Mitt Trotsky, gets creamed ?


50 posted on 02/26/2012 6:34:15 PM PST by Absolutely Nobama (NO COMPROMISE! NO RETREAT! NO SURRENDER! I AM A CONSERVATIVE! CASE CLOSED!)
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To: Lazlo in PA; All

Did anyone else notice the talk of brokered convention gets louder every time the GOP-E’s Chosen One, Mitt Trotsky, gets creamed ?


51 posted on 02/26/2012 6:34:27 PM PST by Absolutely Nobama (NO COMPROMISE! NO RETREAT! NO SURRENDER! I AM A CONSERVATIVE! CASE CLOSED!)
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To: All

To paraphrase the Joker:

You know what I’ve noticed? Nobody in the establishment panics when things go “according to plan.” Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, gas prices will shoot up, or the debt skyrockets, nobody panics, because it’s all “part of the plan”. But when the establishment GOP candidate loses and an outsider like Palin might win, well then everyone loses their minds!


52 posted on 02/26/2012 6:34:33 PM PST by ak267
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To: Linda Frances
> Sent from my iPad

You typed all that on an iPad??? You have much more patience than I do with virtual keyboards. Tell me you have an extern (e.g. Bluetooth) physical keyboard. :)

53 posted on 02/26/2012 6:35:28 PM PST by dayglored (Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!)
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To: IWONDR

Democrats would vote for Romney (easily beatable) or Paul (whackadoo with zip chance in Nov)


54 posted on 02/26/2012 6:37:06 PM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: IWONDR

” do you really believe that a Santorum win would allow Newt to succeed? “

No, I do not believe entirely that Santorum is useful for anything approaching conservative governance, other than slowing Romney in Michigan, and I am all for that. I appreciate his family values extremely, but the time to prove those values were in office. He failed. He didn’t try.

Were I a Michigan resident, I would make calls for Santorum.
Tactical neccessities are sometimes distasteful but required.

Would the Santorum supporters do the same for another candidate, when their candidate has offered nothing to indicate team play? I hope so.

We Newtsters will need them in the South.


55 posted on 02/26/2012 6:38:13 PM PST by RitaOK (LET 'ER RIP, NEWT. Newt knows where all the bodies are buried, because he buried them.)
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To: Absolutely Nobama

No question, the GOP establishment is throwing everything they have at their disposal at wresting the election from we the people.

They may or may not pull it off. Certainly it is proving a whole lot more difficult for them, than it ever has before.

They’re burning quite a few bridges, this go around. Even if they do force Romney upon us, this may be the last election cycle they decide.

They may not even decide this one. It’s going to be close.


56 posted on 02/26/2012 6:38:28 PM PST by Cringing Negativism Network ("The door is open" PALIN 2012)
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To: GeronL

Don’t forget that we need for Paul to win in Virginia.
.


57 posted on 02/26/2012 6:39:13 PM PST by editor-surveyor (No Federal Sales Tax - No Way!)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

>> “They’re burning quite a few bridges, this go around. Even if they do force Romney upon us, this may be the last election cycle they decide.” <<

.
If Romney is the nominee, it will be the last real election we ever have. (regardless of who wins the general)


58 posted on 02/26/2012 6:41:59 PM PST by editor-surveyor (No Federal Sales Tax - No Way!)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

After 2008, my bridge was burned after McLame’s whimpering defeat. No more.


59 posted on 02/26/2012 6:45:13 PM PST by Absolutely Nobama (NO COMPROMISE! NO RETREAT! NO SURRENDER! I AM A CONSERVATIVE! CASE CLOSED!)
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To: editor-surveyor

Voting for Ron Paul (in Virginia) to stop Romney or slow him down, also probably passes the situation ethics test and is a necessary evil for a greater good. (These are the only two men on the ballot for the GOP and that is not an insignificant state to get for the nomination).


60 posted on 02/26/2012 6:47:20 PM PST by AmericanInTokyo (I liked the FREE REPUBLIC of years on end which NEVER had a problem with Rick Santorum, Conservative)
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