Jim Antle of the American Spectator gets almost everything right in this column about the 2012 campaign. His two most glaring errors:
Yet if Santorum had done just a bit better in Michigan and Ohio, we could be having a very different discussion right now. Santorum showed future conservative contenders how to go hunting where the ducks are. As the New York Times columnist Ross Douthat observed, a Republican like Bobby Jindal could take the Santorum coalition — Southerners, Midwesterners, evangelicals, Catholics, and Reagan Democrats — and build on it.
- Error: Never quote Ross Douchebag.
- Error: Bobby Jindal zigged when he should have zagged.
I remember the Sept. 13 CNN Tea Party Express debate in Tampa, encountering Bobby Jindal as he exited the CNN tent outside the auditorium. Jindal had endorsed Rick Perry and was appearing on CNN as a Perry surrogate along with Objective Political Analyst Erick Erickson.
The Perry campaign was a predictable disaster — “The Phantom Menace” — and the way Jindal climbed aboard that bandwagon irritated me at the time. I’ve always liked Jindal, but Ross Douchebag’s idea that Jindal “could take the Santorum coalition” is based on the presumption that Santorum has no future plans for that coalition.
It’s one of those ideas Ivy-educated Boy Geniuses get, like “Tim Pawlenty, Conservative Alternative to Romney,” or “Second Look at Newt.”
Pundits like to think up clever ideas that impress their peers as “counterintuitive,” but are actually just counter to common sense. The really genius ideas, however, are always the kind of common sense things that seem stupid to people who think of themselves as clever.
What does common-sense genius look like? I remember when Steve Foley called me on Election Night 2010 and said, “Whaddya think about Herman Cain?” That was a genius idea. I remember when Lisa Graas said to me in August, “Hey, while you’re in Iowa, do you think you could go check out Rick Santorum?” That was a genius idea.
Now, here’s another common-sense genius idea: Rick Santorum spends the next four months working on his convention speech. And I mean honing it ’til it shines: Every word, every pause, the whole thing committed to memory and rehearsed until it is absolutely perfect.
So that when Santorum gets his primetime moment in Tampa, millions of Americans will say, “Damn. Why didn’t Republicans nominate him?”
Yesterday, somebody started the “Rick 2016? Facebook page.
Common-sense genius, you see.
i’m voting sweater vest in pa on 4/24/12. just keep in mind: mittens 2012 – at least he’s not a communist!
Since you didn’t LINK ME………….I’m going to link myself. I’m on in about ten minutes. http://lisagraas.com/blog/2012/04/11/tonight-lisa-graas-on-fidelis-radio-network-with-rebecca-diserio/ Oh, and……….don’t get stranded anywhere outside Kentucky.
Pay no attention to the fact that I’m an admin on that page.
The Facebook thingie, I mean.
If Romney doesn’t win this year, then I say PALIN 2016
Howbout, “no.”
I have defended Santorum from all the Newties and Rombots for months now. It was ridiculous to see all the nasty things people wrote about Rick Santorum, and I have grown disgusted with conservatives in general for it. In fact, I have stopped caucusing with them altogether. I’m, solidly back in independent land, and I owe conservatives–especially Republicans–nothing. I tried to help the cause, but too many Eric Erickson’s have destroyed Reagan’s brand.
Seriously though, Santorum has a (politically) fatal flaw: he lets the questioners trap him in gays-and-abortion land, anytime and everytime. He got better at it finally after Florida, but even when he was riding high in the polls he got cornered too many times with the loaded questions from idiot reporters. He couldn’t. stop. himself.
I’ve been asking why it’s so damned hard for candidates to “Reaganize” those issues. It’s no harder than being smart enough NOT to try and draw to an inside straight in a high-stakes game when you know one of the cards you need is already in someone’s hand. Yet Santorum let’s them pull on that ring in his nose again and again.
I still say he would have made a fine President, and I would have gladly voted for him in November. But he’s done, politically, unless he gets a very visible position in the next cabinet.
(That was a joke. I doubt Obama will appoint him.)
Between him and Huck, it’s safe to say that a weak evangelical candidate will never get elected. I takes a strong man of faith like Reagan, who can court evangelicals without sounding like a shortwave radio preacher while doing so.
I’m sad about it. Santorum is an intelligent man of faith, but we have to let go.
Will he even be allowed to speak at the convention?
Unless he tows the mark for Romney, big time as a penance even, would the GOP ever allow him anything? I have my doubts.
You speak to Santorum’s fatal flaw.
Romney must find a place at the convention for Santorum, Gingrich and yes Ron Paul if he’s to have a prayer of beating Obamsky.
“he lets the questioners trap him in gays-and-abortion land” — so says a commenter above. Conservatives used to believe in what the Founders believed about Natural Law. Example: Clarence Thomas. You agree with Elena Kagan now? Fine. Just don’t call yourself a conservative, k?
He can come to my house and eat chicken!
It wasn’t anything he said during the primaries that hurt him that badly, it was that damned video of that speech he gave at a Catholic function in 2008 that did him in, which as far as I know he never tried to explain or put in context, nor did he ever try to apologize for it. Which, I guess there was nothing to put into context, it was plain what he meant, and I guess to his way of thinking, why should he apologize for it? Still, I’m sure that more than any one thing (and probably more than any one combination of things) that cost him the Ohio primary. I knew then it was over.
It also didn’t help him AT ALL that he had the reputation of someone who come across as dismissive and disrespectful of Fiscal Conservatives. I don’t know how much of that was ginned up and exaggerated though.
But for future reference, its never a smart move in this current political environment to defend earmarks, a form of legalized bribery of office holders. That is one thing I did hear him do on at least one occasion.
“Romney must…” do what his money tells him to do, I have learned.
It would be crazy of them not to allow him a speaking slot. In fact, I expect most of this years candidates will speak. Cain, Bachmann, Pawlenty, Perry, Gingrich, probably even Ron Paul.
That whooshing sound.
It isn’t required that you read into a comment more than is there.
They would not dare deny him a primetime spot.
Romney is a continuous flip-flopping, gaffe-a-minute train wreck (and will be even worse now that the media has their sites on destroying him). But some obscure speech by Rick in ’08 is what did him in?
So I take it that your position is that being outspent 5 to 1 by Romney with slanderous personal attack ads didn’t enter into the equation, it was that speech in 2008?
I see. Thanks for explaining what doomed Santorum.
Santorum is a young and very vigorous man. His stamina on the campaign trail was extraordinary. I’m a year younger than him, and it was wearing me out just trying to keep up.
You watch: He’ll campaign relentlessly for Romney — or, to be more exact, he’ll campaign relentlessly against Obama. And when it’s over — when it ends as I fear it will end — you watch: Straigh back to Iowa in the “Chuck Truck,” baby.
Santorum now has The List, and he has The Experience. He will use that list, and he will learn from that experience, and when other Republicans start looking at 2016, they’ll take a look at Iowa and say, “Uh, maybe not this year.”
My point isn’t that he ever said anything bad, or incorrect, or that I didn’t agree. It’s that he always allowed them to steer him into that tight little box, and then couldn’t work his way out.
Too many interviews on the same subject are terribly easy to stitch together to hoke up a picture of fanaticism. He needed to get control of those interviews, the way Reagan did.
You seem to feel that Romney’s carpet bombing, reprehensible ad campaign managed to avoid using clips from that speech.
I wouldn’t bet on that.
Eclipse of reason.
So many saviors. So little time. For all the talk of Romney being a big giant ball of moneyed shit, there sure is a WHOLE LOT of idol worship going on around Rick Santorum. Sad.
“So that when Santorum gets his primetime moment in Tampa, millions of Americans will say, “Damn. Why didn’t Republicans nominate him?”
And thereby hate the republican nominee even more!! It’s gonna be awesome. Lemming Dive! Wheeeeeee!
As an excuse for reading more in my comment than I wrote?
or would they?
I truly hope you are correct, Stacy. I could get on board that train if he fixes that flaw. Help him understand how to “Reaganize” that stuff, if you ever get a chance.
(Just a review of Reagan’s statements about abortion are all one really needs. They were a masterclass in defending conservative values.)
Republicans History: The Republican voters for the last 30 years likes to nominate candidates who are known factors, who have been vetted. Thus, the next in line syndrome.
Conservative Elites: Ignore the guy who won eleven states. We need to eagerly hunt down someone who hasn’t been vetted and whose ability to campaign is a complete question mark.
Eh, no wonder they call us, “The Stupid Party.”
If it’s “smart money” those who challenged him will be speaking on that stage.
Herman Cain and Rick Perry had fatal flaws, Santorum was just flawed. I had an interesting conversation a month ago with a coworker about Santorum, a quite sensible married Catholic woman.
I told her I thought Santorum had done himself credit. That I had always thought of him as an opportunistic panderer but that he had really shown himself to be sincere in his beliefs. That’s his problem, she said. If he was just pandering you could get past that. But he really believes it, there’s no getting past that.
Money has no brains.
yea, right.
You’re right, and of course he will. The only question is how close to prime time any of them get.
It’s not up to Romney – Santorum will control the required five delegations to put his name in nomination and he will certainly be allowed to address the convention.
I very seriously doubt Reagan would be successful in that these days. The Media is far more leftist and partisan than it was then. They at least tried to maintain a fig leaf, but don’t even try these days. They are far bolder now, and far more corrosive.
Personally, I think the mess Obama has made will take too long to undo to allow Romney to win reelection in 2016, the results of the rollback will kick in just in time to let the Democrat run on economic growth in 2020, so we’re looking at 2024 for the next chance at the White House (although we may own the Senate by then).
But whether it’s 2016, ’20, or ’24, there are a lot of reasons Santorum will never be a serious contender for the nomination.
For instance: Palin, Walker, Kasich, McDonnell, Jindal, Daniels, Haley, Martinez. Scott and Johnson, too. Ryan and Rubio may not be ready, but they’d have a better shot than Santorum.
The actual Santorum base was the 9-17% of the vote he got in NH, SC, FL, and NV after his surprising success in Iowa. The rest was just the residual due the Last Not Romney Standing. Most of his support wasn’t from winning the hearts and minds, it was for hanging around until every possible alternative had sunk themselves.
So what’s Santorum’s selling point for the future when “Not Romney” has lost its meaning? “Not as Nasty as Newt” or “More Perfectly Petulant than Palin” or “Jesusier than Jindal” or what?
There will almost certainly be some sort of catastrophic economic event during Obamsky’s second term or even if Romney is elected. I wouldn’t count on there being elections every four years after 2012.
Exactly.
It will be “his turn”, supposedly.
“toes” the mark.
The point of Governor Whitman McCain’s backers is not to beat Obama; it’s to whip the GOP base back into quiet obedience.
If it was “smart” money they would have been developing candidates since 2008.
If it was “smart” money they wouldn’t have run the same disastrous Meg Whitman campaign against their own that cost them the CA governorship in 2010.
The target isn’t Obama; it’s us.
Never underestimate the power of senescent incumbency.
Yes, we must NOT let anybody else speak, to protect Governor Whitman McCain! No one will notice! If they do, VP nominee Portman will win them over!
Oh, and
Again no. All of us like Rick, but we’re all well aware he’s made mistakes, and that he is a man and thus heir to the tragic nature of man.
Guys like you are similar to the Left. The Left called Obama the Lightbringer, and so forth.
The Right really, truly, deeply likes Reagan, but if you ask any Conservative, they’d say ‘of course, he made mistakes’.
The Left makes their heroes into Gods; the Right makes their heroes into Saints. But a Saint is a fallible man for all that.
Exactly; that’s why Romney and Gingrich could take virtually identical positions on social issues and get no flack for it. Who believed they meant it?
I never had much of a problem with MOST of the things he said during the campaign. In fact, I agreed with him more often than not. But there were times he did come across as more petulant and pissy, a whiner more than rightfully angry. And he definitely should have been prepared with better answers than stupid shit like “sometimes you have to take one for the team”. In fact, his last couple of debate performances, which happened to be the last two of the campaign to make matters even worse for him, he was not a hell of a lot better than Perry at his worst. That and the old video surfacing was the beginning of his campaign’s implosion.
Another thing I noticed about him, and its going to be hard to explain this right. But there were times when he seemed as though he was trying to give what he thought would be a good, earnest, and insightful answer to a question, but it would come out as forced and insincere, and during those times he would seem to look away from the camera, or downward, as though he didn’t really believe what he was saying.
On the other hand there were times when he was really, really good, maybe not as good as Cain or Newt at their best, but still good, certainly better than Romney at his best. But there was no consistency there in performance style. Then again, that same problem is probably what did Newt in as well.
I don’t know. In the Internet age there’s a lot to be said for speaking the truth bluntly.
LOL. Love it.
Hmmm, my great-grandmother passed down a recipe for roasted chicken with rosemary, garlic, and lemon, with roasted new potatoes, wild mushrooms, and spring veggies that was to die for. (proof that it isn’t always pasta and tomato sauce all the time)
If you make that, can I come to your house and eat chicken?
In fact, that sounds good for dinner tonight….
Toes the line, tows the mark, potato, potahto — you got my meaning!
I think they’ll try to jack him around myself.