Posted on 03/19/2012 7:03:28 PM PDT by Josh Painter
Rick Santorum is coming under fire for saying that the unemployment rate and economic growth are secondary issues to that of freedom in his campaign, a statement that rival Mitt Romney's campaign quickly seized on as being tone-deaf to the plight of out-of-work Americans.
"We need a candidate who's going to be a fighter for freedom. Who's going to get up and make that the central theme in this race because it is the central theme in this race," Santorum told a crowd of about 200 voters during a rally here on Monday. "I don't care what the unemployment rate's going to be. Doesn't matter to me. My campaign doesn't hinge on unemployment rates and growth rates. It's something more foundational that's going on."
The event had barely ended when Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul e-mailed reporters to offer up the statement as evidence of Santorum being an "economic lightweight," a charge that Romney has been making in recent days. The former Massachusetts governor gave a speech in Chicago on Monday attacking President Obama's stewardship of the economy.
"Wow. Sen. Santorum may not care about the unemployment rate in this country or the nearly 24 million Americans struggling for work, but Mitt Romney does and is running to get people back to work," Saul said. "If anyone needed evidence that Rick Santorum is an economic lightweight, they needn't look any further than his various statements today. We're not going to turn around this economy by replacing one former senator with zero job-creating experience with another senator with zero job-creating experience. He has proven it once again," she wrote.
Romney himself, in a subsequent appearance at Bradley University, reaffirmed his concern for unemployment.
[...]
Santorum sought to clarify his comments to reporters after the event...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Freedom IS an economic plan.
We should try it.
Similar to Santorum, it seems your comment doesn't say that.
Or maybe they took his comment out of context.
Anyway, freedom equals jobs.
Some of us have been warning that Santorum was not first string ready. He will never win. Go back with Newt and stay there. The media cannot give us Romney.
I am stealing, hope that's okay. Exactly where the campaign is now. Go Back to Newt and Stay There!! Exquisite.
Mitt Romney supports homo activists in their war against the Boy Scouts.
Starting during the Clinton Administration (does the name Roberta Achtenberg ring a bell?) the Boy Scouts came under relentless fire by the Democrats and their newsrooms for rejecting the idea that they, the Boy Scouts of America, should welcome homosexual scout leaders into the organization and let them take little boys off into the woods. Boy Scouts leaders didn’t think this was such a good idea. Naturally, Massachusetts Mittens sided with the homo activists.
Below are a couple of columns from 10 and 12 years ago about the Boy Scouts being turned away by Mitt Romney and the Olympics Committee for volunteer work on the Salt Lake Olympics. The Boy Scouts had been very active and high profile at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and were looking forward to participating once again. But the Boy Scouts had just won an important Supreme Court case (in June 2000 the Supreme Court ruled that the BSA was a private organization that could choose whoever they wanted as scout leaders and could therefore reject sodomites) and the Democrats/homos were still mighty ticked off about it. Massachusetts Mittens could always be counted on to pander to homo activists, of course, so he gladly came up with a lame lie of an excuse for turning the Boy Scouts away from the Salt Lake Olympics. The Boy Scouts’ disappointment was palpable, and Mitt Romney never returned their calls.
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2000/12/15/214301.shtml
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/2/7/135258.shtml
No, the media inflicted the carnage. They wait at every event hoping for the nuclear sound bite. But only for candidates who threaten their agenda.
There's plenty of blame to go around.
As I pointed out, more than a few conservatives have contributed to this mess. They've been all to willing to go along with the nuclear sound bites.
I never did, not to Newt or anyone. I think we have to pull together behind whatever candidate wins. Nothing is worse than another Obama term, nothing.
I give up.
I beg you not to give up. We need every conservative warrior this fall. It's going to be a major battle. If it's Santorum fine but I'm good with Newt. Just please help us put a conservative in the WH before it's too late.
The left is destroying the candidates? Seems they are doing a pretty good job themselves.
LOL — Rick is a riot.
Yep, we seem to be left with the choices of both the Establishment and the others... Bad timing since almost anyone could beat Obama. we have a very weak Republican field and that is mainly due to those that are in power. They are the weak link in this election.
Breaking tonight... 9 Gingrich Delegates in Illinois announce they’re switching their support to Santorum during an East Peoria event. Al Salvi is breaking the story... don’t have more info. now or the names of the 9 Gingrich delegates. Will post a link once the names are confirmed.
What do you expect?...Pervs get angry when you talk about taking their wackoff material away.
So true but I wish it would stop.
The most vulnerable incumbent president in a generation and the Stupid Party proceeds to blow it’s toes off one by one.
When will we learn not to be led around by the nose by the media?
They are trying to put Santorum on the spot with strange questions and he’s not the most articulate guy in the world to make himself clear.
The media pounces on what they think are destructive soundbites and people here ... with what agenda I cannot fathom ... then pounce on that.
I never see a favorable story posted here about Santorum anymore.
I’m a Newt fan, but, as Rush says, I live in the real world and I prefer Santorum to Romney.
“santo meant to say who cares about the unemployment rate if we are all communists.”
Isn’t that what the soviets always crowed about? That they had zero unemployment rate?
Obviously he needs to phrase things so that his enemies can’t use it against him. I heard what he said and the gist of what he said was that the best way to get unemployment down is to unshackle (ie free) the producers of all the regulations and taxes that destroy their will to start and/or grow a business.
I think he’s 100% right. Any of you disagree?
We’ll be holding our collective noses again to get rid of Soetero. And if we win, we’ll have another Bush clone!
>> Now Newt supporters seem all too willing to do the same to Santorum.
If Team Santorum cannot withstand some therapeutic fun, then maybe Rick is not the guy for the job after all.
With a lot of MSM help. My point ... the MSM is selecting our next candidate. If you can’t see that then you are missing a lot.
Can’t blame everything including bad weather on the MSM!
>> another Bush clone!
The humorless Bush reincarnate.
Now with sweater vests!
The cities were emptied in Cambodia in 1975. Yet they had "full employment" alright...along along the Mekong River and Tonle Sap in villages and hamlets run by the Khmer Rouge, who denied the people 100% Freedom and massacred them at will under the Red Flag.
When you think about it, THIS ELECTION IS ABOUT "FREEDOM" (BEING ENSLAVED BY "GREEN JOBS") MORE SO IN MY LIFETIME THAN I HAVE EVER SEEN NOR EVER BEEN CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT WITH APPROACHING TOTALITARIANISM AND RELIGIOUS OPPRESSION AND GUN GRAB AND OBAMACARE BY A DOCTRINAIRE MARXIST-LENINIST IN THE HENHOUSE. YOU better BELIEVE "FREEDOM" TRUMPS EMPLOYMENT. Every time.
And, well, truth be told, YOU seem to be, based on your accusation of Santorum, the actual "simpleton" here, not Santorum. Wake up and smell the Reverend Wright in the White House. What difference does it matter if it is 5% unemployment or 20% unemployment if we are all reduced to cowering chattel in a Police State with a Bill of Rights in shambles?
I just can’t wait to see the twice daily FR posts titled “A Day in the Life of President Santorum”!
To be fair, it was taken out of context. I have to admit, I don’t know how pols do the soundbite thingie- some are wonderful at it, and some aren’t. Santorum needs some practice, as do Romney & Gingrich. Obama can’t speak off the cuff without getting into trouble.
but does care about Mitt's DOG.
Got it.
Is this some kind of sick joke?
I know. Just like Santorum supporters didn't make Newt talk about a moon-station. But both were all too eager to help Myth by making a major issue of a minor thing. It makes me sick.
Look at my tagline. I've had it since last Fall. I'm not a fair-weather Newt supporter. But he's done. And after tomorrow, I fear, Santorum will be too. The math just isn't there.
We'll get Romney, and frankly I won't care if he wins or loses. I'll vote 3rd party if I can even motivate myself to vote at all. It's all appalling and WE - ALL OF US - have only ourselves to blame. Any conservative that can't see that EITHER Newt or Santorum is 1000 times preferable to Romney is terminally clueless.
Hank
I read on Rush’s website some of the comments Santorum made on the Joe Scarborough show. They were right on.
Most of his statements are right on. Why this desperation to paint him as too religious?
I’m religious. I thought we liked social conservatives.
I’m trying to figure out the Santorum hatred around here and I can’t do it.
Can’t anybody but a few of us see that it only helps Romney?
I admire loyalty but Newt hasn’t shown the hoped for rise in popularity. It ain’t gonna happen people.
Can’t we grow up and support the best guy we have left?
this seems to be a pattern with the good principled conservative santorum... and it is very unseemly and unethical.
Super-Newt-Freeper, Marguerite, posted this this morning, about when Santorum did the same thing in Tennessee. Is there anyone who can picture Newt doing this?
"In Tennessee, they tried a different underhanded tactic and succeeded… Hours before the election, Santorum met with several state delegates declared on the ballot for Gingrich, one even the Co-Chair of the Gingrich campaign, convincing them to switch to Santorum delegates even though the state ballots declared them all for Gingrich.
It amounted to election fraud, as millions of Tennessee Gingrich supporters cast vote after vote for Gingrich delegates that had quietly switched to Santorum hours before the election. The old backroom switcheroo had worked and Santorum won Tennessee, snatching the number two spot in the GOP race from Gingrich for the first time."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2860896/posts
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2012/03/09/gop-defeating-itself-again/
true believer forever, sure, no problem.
Not sure about the truth of your post, but I like Newt also.
Cannot quite see the correlation between liking Newt and the virulent hatred for Santorum.
I don’t see anybody posting anything that makes any sense, just repetitive nonsense about Santorum is stupid, easily manipulated, too religious, blah, blah blah.
Why can’t Newt supporters (like me) support Newt without this crazy war against Santorum.
Obama couldn’t do it any better.
Rick’s message is fine, but it’s ordinary and artificially elevated by desperation. Liberty is not about the ordinary.
Go Newt!!!
I agree 100%. The problem is that barring something I don't expect to see tomorrow, the GOP nominee is going to be Myth Romney...and no conservative warrior is he. In which case, what's a conservative to do?
Hank
I would like to like Santorum better than I do. He is making it more difficult every day.
Breaking tonight... 9 Gingrich Delegates in Illinois announce they’re switching their support to Santorum during an East Peoria event. Al Salvi is breaking the story... don’t have more info. now or the names of the 9 Gingrich delegates. Will post a link once the names are confirmed.
this seems to be a pattern with the good principled conservative santorum... and it is very unseemly and unethical.
Super-Newt-Freeper, Marguerite, posted this this morning, about when Santorum did the same thing in Tennessee. Is there anyone who can picture Newt doing this?
"In Tennessee, they tried a different underhanded tactic and succeeded… Hours before the election, Santorum met with several state delegates declared on the ballot for Gingrich, one even the Co-Chair of the Gingrich campaign, convincing them to switch to Santorum delegates even though the state ballots declared them all for Gingrich.
It amounted to election fraud, as millions of Tennessee Gingrich supporters cast vote after vote for Gingrich delegates that had quietly switched to Santorum hours before the election. The old backroom switcheroo had worked and Santorum won Tennessee, snatching the number two spot in the GOP race from Gingrich for the first time."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2860896/posts
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2012/03/09/gop-defeating-itself-again/
That’s dirty! I heard about a co chair of Newt’s campaign flipping in Tenn, but I had no idea about the rest of it.
“Oh, boo hoo.”
Romney and Santorum are both big government Republicans, and they both have a bad habit of sticking their feet in their mouths.
For Santorum to pontificate about freedom is pure hypocrisy, given that he criticizes the libertarian concepts of small government & limited freedom that Ronald Regan claimed as essential principles of conservatism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gwwmm-cQxU
Reagan didn’t believe in everything libertarian, but he fully embraced the ideas of smaller government and personal freedom (tempered by personal responsibility).
This is part of why Santorum is not a Reagan conservative. He’s not not even close. He’s a big government Republican. Romney is a liberal Republican who has flip flopped on ever major issue.
Romney cannot win if the base refuses him when he is short of the delegates. If people support Newt, we can make a difference, I know. If we continue splitting our strength, yes, it will be hard to get reforms. If Rick was a strong candidate, Newt would step outside or Newt would not even matter ..Newt even said that today..Please don't blame Newt's supporters. A man has to stand on his own, it's not fair to us to make excuses of things Rick has said himself.
I have studied Santorum, since he was a Freshman Rep. in the House. His religion has nothing to do with it. Although that is most all that he knows how to talk about.
He is no way qualified to fix this mess. He has no executive or business experience and his past contribution to the House and Senate is highly exaggerated.
Santorum will lose to Obama if he is nominated. It's just that simple.
He told the voters in N. Dakota..the Iranians are coming
this is one of many links available about what happened in Tennessee, including Newt's State GOP chair, and 2 others, defecting to Santorum the night before the vote...
http://theothermccain.com/2012/03/03/huge-gingrich-tennessee-co-chair-resigns-and-endorses-rick-santorum/
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/03/03/co-chairman-of-gingrich-tennes
Santorum was making the oint that pornography laws will be enforced. Children and adults are hurt every day as a result of pornagraphy law violations and it’s more than just a local issue. People are abused and entrapped into this crap and it’s wrong. It has nothing to do with freedom to allow damaging wickedness in society and culture. This has been true since our forefathers wrote the DI and since the Constitution.
Umm, Santorum won the TN promary by getting more votes than Romney of Newt. If some of the delegates allocated to Newt now support Santorum, it has nothing to do with how Santorum won TN, because the numbers reported were primary votes received, not how the elected delegates say they will vote.
It shows weakness- people jumping teams to go where they think one side has the momentum. Not loyal people; very shameful and reminds me of democrats changing party affiliation when their side is doing so badly. Imo.
Santorum just lost the nomination. If somehow he is the nominee, then Obama just got a second term.
It is the economy stupid.
Well Gingrich would not even get out of the starting box. So we might as well take our cookies and go home. Gingrich wouldn’t have a chance. I love him as a person and a mind but he is political damaged goods to the vast majority of the voting public.
“I don’t care what the unemployment rate’s going to be. Doesn’t matter to me. My campaign doesn’t hinge on unemployment rates and growth rates. It’s something more foundational that’s going on.”
“It’s something more foundational that’s going on.”
Would that “foundational” thing be an unclad body on a legal website? Would that include my statue of David who is unclad? Or my Venus statue with one breast uncovered?
Santorum needs to take his moral perfect self home and stare at a mirror.
Newt has sense, Santorum does not. Our country is bleeding to death due to no growth due to Hussein.
It seems to me that the same people that elected Soetero, or perhaps the same MINDSET, are now selecting the GOP candidate. Whatcha gonna do?!
He should have said the Obama phony Unemployment rate I don’t care about. The real unemployment rate is much higher since the labor force keeps shrinking to lower it.
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