Posted on 01/04/2012 7:14:42 AM PST by milwguy
Rick Santorum’s second-place finish in the Iowa Republican caucuses means he’s now a leading alternative to Mitt Romney — and a prime attack target for the front-runner.
A former Pennsylvania U.S. senator, Santorum, 53, campaigned across Iowa in a Ram pickup truck arguing he is the most consistent candidate on such issues as ending abortions and curbing government waste. It’s a message that caught fire in the final days of a fluid primary and propelled him into the front tier of candidates.
He finished just eight votes behind the well-funded and better-organized former Massachusetts governor, and also bested Ron Paul, the Texas Representative who came in third and whose intensely loyal supporters will likely keep him in the race for future primaries.
Yet Santorum’s 16-year congressional career is the area his competitors already are mining for evidence to use against him, ranging from earmarked federal spending to an endorsement of Pennsylvania’s former senior Senator Arlen Specter, who later switched parties to become a Democrat.
Labor Votes
Santorum’s competitors are also likely to highlight votes he cast to benefit organized labor, including minimum-wage increases and preserving government wage-setting regulations, that have so far captured little attention on the campaign trail.
Paul told CNN Jan. 2 that Santorum “spends too much money. He wasn’t leading the charge to slash the budgets and vote against big government.”
Targeted Spending
For instance, Pennsylvania in 2005 received $483 million in earmarks for 872 projects, including $5.4 million for an igloo upgrade for an Army Depot and $5 million for a new visitor center at Gettysburg.
‘Proud of the Money’
Santorum defended himself on Dec. 29 on Fox News: “I’m proud of the money that I did set aside for things that were priorities in my state instead of having bureaucrats do that.”
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Santorum would drive the Ron Paul young right into Obama's camp.
Santorum is a social conservative, but has no record of fiscal conservatism to stand on. His protectionist streak, support of increasing minimum wages, and stand on Davis-Bacon expose him to be the same gov't knows best bureaucrat that we want out of Washington DC.
The 'conservative' movement will splinter into many pieces if we nominate a guy who lost as his Senate re-election bid in Penn by 18 POINTS.
What do you imagine Romney's voting record in the Senate would have been?
I'd suggest Romney wouldn't have matched Brown's record ~ but would be more like Kennedy's record.
It's very easy to decide between Santorum and Romney
You mean he’s not perfect? That settles it, I’m going with the establishment candidate. Let us know when you find Mr Perfect.
Actually, some of us social conservatives like his stands and have now found our candidate.
Pray for America
Awesome, now the MSM, including Fox News, will relentless attack Santorum while continuing to give Mittens a complete pass.
After that, they’ll relentless attack Mittens until The Chosen Messiah wins again.
Also, I don’t want Ron Paul’s neo-nazi loony-bin followers in the GOP. Let them go democrat!
He can be beaten on the "EMPLOYMENT RATIO/RATE" alone.
During the greater part of George' Bush' "worst economy since the Depression" the employment rate was 75%.
During the Obama years the employment rate has been about 55%, and for youth even lower.
Bush had 35% more folks working than has Obama.
Serious?...he’s a family man, what’s wrong with that?.......HARD line social positions? because he has a belief in God and life?.......He’s pro business and would drill Omoron in head to head debates.
SEE my tagline. Watch his speech.
http://www.hannity.com/videos/?uri=channels/400391/1575619
They're going there anyway. Let's not delude ourselves into thinking Paulbots are mainly bright, eager, young conservatives. A lot of Paul's "support" comes from crossover dems.
Obama probably sees this as a major accomplishment: He has 35% more people getting their "paychecks" from the federal government.
I am no Romney supporter. I defy anyone to find any of the 1000’s of posts I have made on FR supporting Romney.
I am a realist, and if the nominee is a guy who wants to run on social issues, who lost his own Senate re-election campaign by 18 points, who endorsed snarlin Arlen Spector, and who has no history of fiscal conservatism to stand on, Obama WILL win re-election.
They never weren't democrat. Ron Paul is the embodiment of the dems' version of "Operation Chaos."
It took less than 12 hours for the Romney team to start smearing Santorum.
Romney IS Obama’s dream opponent. The entire Occupy Wall Street street theatre scene was ginned up because Romney is a Wall Street Insider. Romney is tailor made for Obama’s class warfare attack plans and they have been preparing for Romney all along.
Santorum is not what they were expecting and he will cause Obama to spend limited time and unlimited dollars shoring up Pennsylvania. Time he’d rather spend in Ohio, Florida and Missouri. Throw in Wisconsin after Scott wins the re-call in a landslide, and Santorum forces Obama to move to the left to shore up his base in otherwise assumed “safe states” like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Plus, Santorum will get something Romney never will - conservative ENTHUSIASM. That scares Obama.
Romney will be unable to force Obama to react to a fired base behind the GOP candidate and he cannot force Obama to defend “safe” turf. Thus, Romney as the nominee frees Obama up to hammer away on Romney Ohio, Florida, Missouri, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado and New Mexico.
Santorum is far from Obama’s dream candidate. They’ve been planning for Romney all along.
Yes he is a Catholic with a conscience and yes he has a special affinity for the blue collar worker but no he is not some RINO or liberal. So keep the freaking lies out of the debate.
They all have issues but at least overall Santorum is conservative. Paul people have zero room to talk about earmarks.
yep Santorum is the least Tea Party type candidate running against Romney.. if the idea is just to get in a person with high morals(who has been faithful to his wife) vote for Huntsman..... Huntsman is more Tea Party than big spender Santorum
Being the father of a Ron Paul supporter who went to HILLSDALE College, I would disagree with your characterization of many of Paul’s supporters. You would probably be shocked at the level of support that Paul as at that bastion of conservative education.
I don’t agree with my son’s support for Paul based just on Paul’s foreign policy views, but there are a lot of young CONSERVATIVES who are fed up with the Republican Party and support Paul for his fiscal views FIRST, moderate social views SECOND, and overlook or place no emphasis on his foreign policy views.
The Republican Party nominates a person like Santorum at their peril, and I would vehemently disagree that Ron Paul supporters will automatically support Obama if Paul does not win the nomination.
+1
Romny’s supporters can attack Santorum as a big governemnt guy all they want, but the fact is compared to Romney; Santorum is practically a small government Libertarian.
Romneycare.
I’ll take my chances with Santorum.
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