Remind me why/how we beat Santorum

[Hamlette]

I know I was worried about romney at one time but as his unfavorables go up, meh. But this Sunday school prick? Could he catch on? I said we could beat Reagan and W and look what happened.

Talk me down. Santorum is scaring me.

[niyad]

1. be afraid, be very afraid.

in a sane world, this cretin would never have gotten into public office. but we do not live in a sane world.

[spanone]

2. no way. in a general election he doesn't have a prayer.

reagan was highly charismatic...rick, not so

and he's a radical...an extreme radical.

[ProfessorGAC]

23. +1

Reagan appeared affable enough that people didn't know they were voting for radicalism. If they had, he wouldn't have one either.

Santorum can't hide his radicalism, and the GE doesn't favor radicals.
GAC

[SaintPete]

3. Sick Rantorum scares me because out of all the GOP candidates

he's the one that would be most able and willing to take the country into theo-fascism.

I was never afraid of Sarah Palin. I could see through her veneer of religiosity to the grifter lurking beneath.

When he won Colorado I was frightened. Now he's ahead in Michigan and Ohio is close behind. I wish Newt would unleash the rhetorical fire on the little fucker and knock him outta the game before he builds too much momentum.

[customerserviceguy]

4. I can't talk you down

I'm starting to worry that Sicky Ricky can go to Tampa with a first-ballot victory, and if the economy stalls, all bets are off on the President's re-election.

If we look at where Jimmy Carter and Ronald Raygun were months before the election, Jimmy was whupping the Gipper's ass mightily in the polls in late summer.

Here's the bad news. pRick Scrotum can count on the fundies for sure, can probably persuade the vast majority of the tea partiers, and the country-clubber establishment Republicons will fall in line with anybody who can win the nomination and is not Obama, even though their preference is Mittens.

If anybody here is planning to vote for Frothy as a way to screw with Mitt, my advice is to screw with the Repukes by voting for Paul, instead. Unless you're in Virginia, then go for Romney. Really. A Paul win there means a Mitt loss, and the way I see Super Tuesday going, Robot will have a really bad day everywhere outside of Massachusetts and maybe Georgia.

[HuckleB]

7. Can you link us to polls that show Carter whupping Reagan in the polls in late summer?

Further, Santorum is not Reagan. And, while I love Jimmy Carter, Obama is not Carter.

[Hamlette]

17. not sure Carter Reagan is a good election example

and not sure Carter was ahead in the polls. A quick check of Wiki says at the end of the primaries in 1980 Reagan was ahead in the polls with 58% of Americans disapproving of how Carter handled presidency. And don't forget the hostages with the awful news coverage every night saying how long they had been held etc. And the Kennedy challenge. As much as I love Carter, he was a better x-president than president. (Wiki is interesting in that it says it was the first time evangelicals voted in large numbers for the republican thanks to Jerry Falwell. It calls it a major realignment election. Some people I like still admire Reagan but I hate him with heat of a thousand burning suns.)

So, unless something awful happens between now and then, Obama is in better shape even with the economy.

I also think that Ricky will start to falter once people are introduced to him properly. He might even energize a couple of key groups for our side ie women and gays.

[WI_DEM]

25. Carter had a lot of liabilities going into the election

that the electorate wanted a change. High inflation, interest rates and unemploymnet from a mild recession plus the hostage crisis.

[WI_DEM]

24. Not so, According to Gallup at one point in early August Reagan was up 45-29

It was after the Democratic Convention that the polls got close. It was two events that swung the election heavily towards Reagan. The first was the debate, held less than a week before the election. Reagan's grandfatherly presence seemed to calm a lot of voters. Then, more dramatically, when the false hope for the hostages being released the weekend before the election came back with no release--the bottom dropped out of Carter's polling. Overnight Carter's own pollster found that the president had fallen ten points. Even so, Reagan eneded up with just over 50% of the vote with John Anderson hurting Carter far more than Reagan and taking states like MA and NY from the Democrats (for instance Carter lost MA by only 2000 votes while Anderson got almost 400,000 votes).

http://www.uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=115543.0

[hyphenate]

5. Scares most of us, I think

He's a nutcase. A very, VERY loose cannon.

Not only is he an idiot, but a dangerous loonytoons.

His personal life and senatorial record speak volumes.

How will we beat him? I honestly don't know. I was thinking about this today, and what it comes down to, is this: Santorum has yet to go into a really negative campaign, and perhaps the idiotic sheeple of America would rather vote for a nice catholic boy who is as stupid as shit than a competent leader--I don't know. If they are willing to do that, like they did for Bush, than this country isn't worth a goddamned bit.

I guess I'll still have to put together a contingency plan, and go to Canada if it happens.

If you don't already know about it, google Santorum and stillborn baby and enjoy reading.

[HuckleB]

6. He's scary.

But if he wins the GOP nomination, he could spell the death knell of the GOP.

It's not a sure thing. Nothing is. But we have to be honest with ourselves, and look at an opportunity for what it is. Fear only leads to defeat.

Screw fear.

[On the Road]

8. Santorum Would Not Be a Strong Candidate in the General Election

Look at his numbers among independents -- they swing elections. Romney is the only one I would think has a chance.

[Dawson Leery]

9. Santorum is losing the female vote by 22%.

[gateley]

12. Then maybe it WOULD be best for us if Santorum got the nod? nt

[JI7]

10. he isn't just against Abortion, he is against birth Control pills

and any other methods of birth control that would prevent pregnancy .

most voters are women.

[Motown_Johnny]

11. He is the very last "Non-Romney" on the list

He will have a month or so and then he too will fade. It might last a little longer because he is the very last one (Ron Paul doesn't count).


If he were to win the nomination he would lose women voters by 40%. He can't win. Carter was hurt by a primary challenge and Gore was dragged down by Clinton's scandal. President Obama is is great shape compared to either of them and Santorum lost his last election by 18%. Frothy is no Ronald Reagan. Hell he isn't even a Shrub. No reason to freak out here. Odds are Mitt will still find a way to buy his way to the nomination.

[gateley]

13. I also think the Hostage situation in Iran really hurt Carter. The people I know who

voted for Reagan did so for that reason -- felt Carter was "weak", sadly and wrongly.

[peace frog]

15. Exactly. If Huntsman or Perry were still in the race

they could be kicking Sick Rick's ass in the polls at this point. Santorum can't win in a general election, period.

[Crunchy Frog]

14. Encourage him to open his mouth in public as much as possible.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002316315

[SmileyRose]

16. Santorum will be the pied piper to blue collar fundies --of all races

The guy has not yet completely forsaken his blue collar pedigree. Whether people will be willing to vote in a guy who wants to force pregnancy on underage rape victims because they think he might toss a few coins their way is yet to be seen.

[NNN0LHI]

18. George W. Bush once had a +90% approval rating

[Johonny]

19. The Dude is Pat Buchanan light

he will scare the shit out of the general electorate at the convention just like Pat did. The general public does not want war with Iran, is not worried about using contraceptives, isn't catholic, is likely a women etc... This is a guy that got destroyed in his last election in a swing state. Obama already has a formula that worked against Santorum in a key state. This over the top stuff works on the Christian right, but won't work in the general election. W was way smarter about how he approached working the middle and the Christian right at the same time. In 2000 most Americans thought there was little difference policy wise between him and Gore. There a huge gap between Santorum and Obama and the polling shows the American public knows this.

[warrior1]

20. he also has skeletons.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/rick-santorum-john-ensign-6636297


Jan
10
Rick Santorum Sucks, Part 1,246
By Charles P. Pierce
at 9:15AM

Sometimes, I miss daily newspapering just for the sheer thrill of what a great headline can do for a good story.

I'd forgotten what a favor Good Catholic Boy Rick Santorum did for his pal, John Ensign, when it was about to be discovered just how much constituent service Ensign would provide as long as he got to service a constituent on a regular basis. Not for Rick to iallow sexy-time to be interrupted inadvertently. There's a job for him as a bouncer at the front desk of the Moonlight Bunny Ranch if this president thing doesn't work out.

"I begged Rick to talk to me first,” Hampton said in his first public interview since Santorum's surge in the GOP presidential primary race. "I told him, 'You don't understand what I've done to try and help this man understand what he has done. You're a good friend, maybe you could go talk to him.'"

Yeah, he's still a dick.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/rick-santorums-school-scandal

http://www.39online.com/entertainment/onlinedish/kiah-online-dish-karen-santorum-affair-with-abortion-doctor-story,0,1944700.story

http://famous-conspiracy-theories-websites.blogspot.com/2012/01/rich-rick-santorum-scandal-member.html

[HughBeaumont]

21. Racist, sexist, homophobic, economic Darwinist of the highest order . . . what's the problem?

Santorum is unlikeable by anyone but Bible belters, Quiverfull families and scattered other Fundamentalpatients. Independents, women and sane voters have recovered from the Reagan hangover. Nutjobs NOT named "Bush" don't win general elections at this point.

I don't take ANY of the GOP candidates seriously. AT all.

[libtodeath]

22. He appeals to the

crazies and fanatics in the party but the rest recoil from him.
He will have the racist teabagger vote but little more,I predict many pubs will just stay home.