Santorum: "We will never have the elite, smart people on our side"

Failed GOP presidential candidate, former US Senator, and all around gay-hating guy, Rick Santorum told a religious right conference (sponsored by a number of officially-designated "hate groups") that smart people will never support religious right Republicans.

Santorum seems to have missed the irony.

Let's dissect Santorum's statement (which is below).

1. Smart people will never be on your side - but the audience, made up of religious right leaders from around the country, is on your side.  Thus religious right leaders are not "smart people."

2. If you really had the correct policy prescriptions for America, wouldn't you think "smart people" would embrace that?  I mean, do you think "dumb" people are better able to determine the life of a fetus than "smart" people?  Are dumb people better able to analyze the science on global warming and determine whether or not it's a hoax?  On gay rights, are dumb people really more capable at determining whether there's a constitutional right to civil rights for gays?  And finally (but not limited to), health care reform - you really think dumb people are better than smart people and determining its constitutionality, let alone whether health care reform is the best approach, among those available, at helping more Americans get more affordable, and better, health care without hurting the economy, et ?

I'm sorry, but when you have a brain tumor, you don't seek out a dumb doctor.  When the IRS audits you, you don't hire a dumb accountant.  No one wants a dumb banker, or a dumb lawyer.

It's seems the only time you really want someone dumb is when Rick Santorum and the religious right are stumping for votes.

That ought to tell them something.  But it clearly doesn't.

I'm reminded of a quote from high school (from the poet TS Eliot to be exact), "we had the experience but missed the meaning."

Perhaps they're just too dumb to get the irony.

PS I still can't read stuff like this and not see the word "Jew" hidden between the lines.  Maybe it's just me.

Rick Santorum at the hate group sponsored Values Voter Summit 2012:

"[T]he media doesn't go along with us. You have to understand that. They don't like conservatism. They like the other side. Not necessarily, I would argue, because they necessarily agree with them -- it's because they can influence the country more. You see, if just a few people make decisions about what this world looks like and what this country looks like, well then you can have people sitting in offices -- the major media outlets and in Hollywood -- they can deal with a small group of people, and influencing them and getting them to jump through the hoops they want them to. It's much harder if all of you collectively build America. It's much harder to influence you. We will never have the media on our side -- ever, in this country. We will never have the elite, smart people on our side, because they believe they should have the power to tell you what to do. So our colleges and our universities, they're not going to be on our side."

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If the GOP candidates were teens on Twitter

From College Humor (an excerpt):

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Santorum proves 'Weakness is Strength'

Steve Benen's obituary for the Santorum campaign is worth a read. A key graf:

But in a strange sort of way, I consider the Santorum campaign one of the most impressive things I've seen in presidential politics in quite a while.

Putting aside his ideas, vision, values, policy positions, and agenda, much of which I find abhorrent and offensive, Santorum has done something I honestly didn't think was possible. Just six years ago, he ran for re-election in his home state and lost by 18 points, one of the most humiliating defeats for an incumbent senator in American history. When Santorum launched his presidential bid last year, it was derided as a pointless vanity exercise by, among others, me.

So why did Santorum's campaign catch fire? There are many theories but I think the reason is that Santorum's weakness was his strength. That 18 point defeat meant that Santorum went into the fight dead last and nobody felt much need to pay attention to him in the early stages. Santorum was anti-Romney of last resort, his campaign only caught fire after every other alternative to Romney had been tried and found wanting.

Santorum only ever looked like having any chance of being nominee on the days when Romney said something particularly stupid. At one point it looked as if Santorum might possibly manage to force a brokered convention and allow the party to choose a 'viable' candidate. Read the rest of this post...

Rick Santorum drops out of presidential race

Santorum photo
via Shutterstock

Having finally solved his Google problem (as of today's search Dan Savage's website is no longer the top result for a Rich Santorum Google search), Rick Santorum is reported to have suspended his campaign.

This leaves the Republicans with virtually no option but to elect Mitt Romney the flip-flopping candidate that Republican primary voters have gone out of their way for two presidential cycles to avoid.

Congratulations to the Republican party. You have your candidate. Read the rest of this post...

Santorum remains highly unpopular in his home state of PA

The radical Republican wasn't very popular when voters sent him packing and his numbers are about the same today. What has to be a painful realization for Romney is that as unpopular as Santorum is in his home state, Romney is currently running behind him. That may change between now and voting day but it once again shows how lukewarm the support is among Republicans for Mitt Romney.

He spoke at the state's largest annual gathering of conservatives several weeks ago, yet won a straw vote with less than half the vote. His support in the state also has slipped, according to surveys that highlight his apparent likeability problem.

Santorum is as unpopular now as he was at the time of his defeat. A February poll by Muhlenberg College showed that nearly half the registered voters surveyed viewed him unfavorably. Just 39 percent saw him favorably.

A March 28 poll by Franklin & Marshall College showed Santorum with 30 percent support to Romney's 28 percent among registered Republicans, a significant drop from the 29-point advantage Santorum enjoyed in February.

Read the rest of this post...

Bomb explodes outside Wisconsin Planned Parenthood

From TalkingPoints Memo:

A small, homemade bomb exploded outside a Planned Parenthood office in Wisconsin on Sunday night, prompting federal and local investigators to launch a hunt for the person who put it there.

The attack took place at about 7:30 p.m. local time in Wisconsin, causing a small amount of damage to the building in the town of Grand Chute, about 30 miles southwest of Green Bay. No one was injured.

Teri Huyck, President of Planned Parenthood Wisconsin, released a statement saying that the clinic will remain open despite the attack, and the FBI has confirmed that they are joining the investigation.

Rick Santorum also released a statement condemning the attacks, which read in part:

While we can and should work to defund Planned Parenthood and push back against government mandates that force Americans and religious institutions to violate their faith, violence against our fellow citizens has no place in a freedom-loving America.

It should be noted that news of this attack comes just one day before the Wisconsin primary elections. Read the rest of this post...

Santorum says better to re-elect Obama than make Romney president

This is far better, meaning destructive, than Hillary vs. Obama.  From First Read at MSNBC:

Rick Santorum today suggested it would be better to stick with President Obama over a candidate that might be "the Etch A Sketch candidate of the future” -- a shot at chief rival Mitt Romney.

"You win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who’s just going to be a little different than the person in there," said Santorum. "If you’re going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk with what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate of the future.”

For the second day in a row, the former Pennsylvania senator brought an Etch A Sketch on the trail as a prop to remind voters of Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom's response to a question about whether Santorum is pushing Romney too far right to win over moderate voters in a general election. "Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes," Fehrnstrom said Wednesday on CNN. "It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again."

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Puerto Rico really, really doesn't like Rick Santorum

Puerto Rico has proven that it really, really doesn't like Rick Santorum. In fact, they disliked him so much that they gave Mitt Romney an 83% to 8% win over him, even after Rick went to the island to pander to residents and sneak in some rays poolside (no, I won't link to the picture, so you're on your own there).

Santorum's loss comes with good reason. After his double-win in the southern states of Alabama and Mississippi last week (where respectively 45% and 52% of Republican voters also believe that President Obama is a secret Muslim, and in Mississippi a plurality of GOP voters still think inter-racial marriage should be illegal), Santorum left for Puerto Rico to begin campaigning for their weekend race. Except things there got off to an epically-bad start.

I believe the general rule of thumb in politics is to not try to piss off the people whose votes you're trying to gain (but then again I've never run for office, and have publicly clarified my stance on man-on-dog action, so what do I know). Santorum stunned the entire island and the mainland after saying that in order to qualify to join the union, Puerto Rico is constitutionally-required to adopt "English as the main language." Yes, Rickie went to a nation of Spanish-speakers and told them to learn g-damn English.

And Santorum couldn't be more wrong. Not only does Puerto Rico officially recognize English and Spanish as their official languages, but this so-called constitutional requirement does not even exist (I don't expect a non-constitutional scholar like Santorum to get that - that's why we elected Barack Obama, who taught constitutional law). Santorum would probably call this absurd claim a "misspeak." Others might use the word "lie."

Santorum then tried to walk back the comment, but it was too late. In the end, he humiliatingly lost the endorsement of a prominent former senator and the island went to Romney. Romney of course milked Santorum's fail to the dear end, telling Puerto Ricans they could speak whatever they damn well please, y'all.

Rick later managed to top himself (coincidentally an act that would be illegal under a President Santorum) by calling Puerto Rico a "country," even though it's been an unincorporated territory of the United States since 1898. Are history books gay, Rick -- is that why you don't seem to interact with them much?

Sadly, this is the same Republican party that has joked about electrocuting Mexican immigrants and self-deportation (which I hear is about as popular among Latino voters as Republicans self-taxing). Even a Fox News Latino poll showed that Latino voters are picking President Obama over Romney, 70% to 14%. Santorum didn't even manage a showing in the poll, coming in as "Other."

Luckily for Puerto Ricans, Santorum self-deported from the "country" after his defeat, and has rejoined us in "America." I'm sure I'm not the only one waiting for Cinco de Mayo to roll around so Santorum can don a sombrero and tell Mexican-Americans like myself to quit having so many babies (while he tries to make contraception and abortion illegal).  Mitt Romney, on the other hand, typically can't decide whether to brag about his quasi-Mexican heritage or shun it. (I look forward to the day when Santorum starts lecturing Señor Mitt to stop having so many babies.)

And another margarita, por favor. Read the rest of this post...

Stephanopoulos: Santorum may need an actual act of God to force a brokered convention

From ABC's George Stephanopoulos:

But to do it, Santorum would have to basically sweep all the big states left:

Illinois next week. (And even that win might not get him most of the delegates because Santorum’s off the ballot in a few districts.)

Then he needs upsets in Wisconsin and Maryland on April 3rd – plus a sweep of New York and Pennsylvania at the end of the month.

In May, he’d need to win big on the 8th: Indiana, West Virginia and North Carolina – and hope that gives him enough momentum to win three of the five contests on June 5th. One of those wins would have to be either New Jersey or California.

All that would cripple Romney heading to Tampa. Is it likely? Not really, but not impossible either.

Read the rest of this post...

Santorum tells Puerto Rico to speak English

Santorum doubles down on bigotry again:

"We need to work together and determine what type of relationship we want to develop," he told the newspaper.

But Santorum said he did not support a state in which English was not the primary language.

"Like any other state, there has to be compliance with this and any other federal law," Santorum said. "And that is that English has to be the principal language. There are other states with more than one language such as Hawaii but to be a state of the United States, English has to be the principal language."

Jason Links does a good job of pointing out ignorance and incoherency of this outburst (including the fact that there is no law that says you must speak English in order to be admitted as a state) but Santorum is not likely to be the 2012 nominee (2016 is a different matter). Santorum does have the ability to raise campaign topics that the Romney camp would surely wish to keep as silent as possible on. Statehood for Puerto Rico is one of those issues.

Residents of Puerto Rico don't get to vote in the presidential election but Puerto Ricans living on the US mainland do, and the Puerto Rican community in Florida is possibly large enough to tip the election. And even though the issue of Statehood is contentious amongst those living on the island, Puerto Ricans living on the mainland tend to be overwhelmingly in favor of it. Which would of course make supporting Puerto Rican statehood a no-brainer for a candidate, if only the GOP had not spent the past four years fulminating against 'illegals' which their audience (and Latinos) understood was a codeword for 'Latinos'.

NOTE FROM JOHN: I do wish the Republicans would stop using the English language as code for bashing Latinos and other immigrants.  There is a valid argument to be made for every American citizen learning English, without always having to resort to the hysteria and bigotry that pervades the GOP.

Our language unites us as Americans, whether it's written in law or not.  And I'm someone who speaks five languages (including Spanish), so I'm sympathetic to immigrants and to other languages, not to mention the fact that my mom is, and all of my grandparents were, immigrants.  But they threw my mom in first grade, right off the boat from Greece, even though she was old enough to be a third grader, and forced her to learn English.  And she did.  And was double promoted and graduated high school with kids her own age.  So I'm sympathetic to immigrants, can't stand when Republicans use the language issue to cloak their own prejudice, but I also believe that we should all speak a common tongue.  It's too bad the Republicans have pretty much guaranteed that there's no way to have a civil discussion on the topic, since civility was never their intent in the first place. Read the rest of this post...

About last night... the GOP primaries in AL and MS

Santorum won both states last night.

Nate Silver in the NYT on Gingrich's losses

Newt Gingrich's spokesman R.C. Hammond called both Alabama and Mississippi "must wins" for his candidate. Mr. Gingrich lost both states to Rick Santorum, instead.

Was Romney punished by southern voters for being a Mormon? More from Nate, noting that Romney underperformed versus earlier polls:

We mentioned earlier that polls are having a rough night in Mississippi. They projected Mitt Romney to win 34 percent of the vote there and several gave him the lead. But with most of the vote counted, he has 30 percent so far instead and is running in third place. Meanwhile, Rick Santorum is running significantly ahead of his polls.

As Political Wire notes, it wasn't a great night for Romney, who finished third in both states: rospars:

RT @politicalwire: Romney adviser: "I don't think anybody expected Mitt to win AL or MS." Romney yesterday: "We are going to win tomorrow."

Kombiz adds:

RT @kombiz: If an executive came to me and said lemme spend $100M to be 3rd in GOP primaries, I'd say You're Fired. #BusinessMitt

Kombiz adds:

kombiz: Honestly, Kudos to McCain.. In 2008 he actually had to beat serious contenders for the presidency. Romney can't beat fringe candidates

ABC News' exit polls show that voters were skeptical of Romney's conservative credentials, half branded him "not conservative enough." Duh, he's a northeast liberal. Or at least he was. Now it's not clear if he was even honest about being a liberal.

More concern about Romney's double 3rd place finish from Politico:

Rick Santorum delivered another sharp shock to Mitt Romney’s campaign Tuesday night, claiming victory in the Alabama and Mississippi presidential primaries and reinforcing — yet again — conservative hesitations about the GOP front-runner.

Gingrich says Romney is "not much of a frontrunner."

But before everyone gets giddy over how well Rick Santorum is doing, keep in mind that Americans are more than capable of electing the man president. (Would you really put it past them? These are the people who re-elected George Bush.) So be careful what, or who, you wish for. Read the rest of this post...

Santorum says climate change not real, CO2 not a danger, because plants like CO2

GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum actually said today that the danger of increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the resultant climate change it can cause, is nothing to worry about because: "Tell that to a plant, how dangerous carbon dioxide is."

Well, under the same theory, if we locked one of the Santorum children in an airtight room filled with only carbon dioxide, then they'd flourish just like a pretty little rose, wouldn't they?

What a ridiculous argument.

And I guess they keep a lot of cyanide available in the Santorum household because cyanide is made up of carbon and nitrogen, and ask any barbecue fan how dangerous charcoal is, and ask any plant how dangerous nitrogen is.

All jokes aside, this is a sign of how extreme, and dangerous, the Republican party has become.  They're anti-science, and anti-facts.  In Santorum's case,  you almost believe that he believes what he's saying.  That he's too dumb to even see the logical fallacy in what he's asserting.  And it's something the Republican party does a lot.  They enjoy talking to their voters like they're idiots - it's the same thing Fox News does, pandering to the gullibility of their audience.  The thing is, it's not bias, it's far worse than that.  You can be biased and still make a reasonable argument.  They're not interested in reason.  As Santorum famously said the other week, only an elitist would want their kid to go to college.  Because the goal is to have the populace be as dumb as possible, and politicians as unrestrained as possible.

The real irony is that all its talk of the dangers of unlimited government, it's the Republican party that's trying to do away with the gate-keepers of government power, be they the media, the courts, science or facts. Read the rest of this post...

Westboro Baptist shows up at Santorum event

They're the nuts who protest gay funerals, and funerals of people who like gays, and funerals of US service members, just cuz.

I had to ask myself whether they were protesting or cheering.  It appears neither. Read the rest of this post...

Video song: Rick Santorum is my man (seriously)

I particularly like the girl from Heathers doing her recurring cameo with that fabulous hair and earrings.  This might just be this election season's "Hillary for you and me."  On a more serious note, I'm not sure I want Santorum putting anything "in my hands," but that's just me.

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Romney and Santorum tie in new Ohio poll

This Tuesday is Super Tuesday. From the NYT:

Heading into Super Tuesday’s contests, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney remain neck and neck in the major battleground state of Ohio, while Newt Gingrich leads in his native state of Georgia, according to polls released on Sunday.

In Virginia, where Mr. Romney and Ron Paul are the only candidates on the ballot, Mr. Romney has a large advantage.

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The Google definition of "Santorum" just got messier

Dan Savage reports that something happened over at Google, and spreadingsantorum.com is no longer the first result that comes up when you Google the name/word "Santorum."  Of course, what now does come up near the top of the list is a definition that's actually worse than what was there before.

What did Aesop say, watch what you wish for? Read the rest of this post...

Romney wins AZ, Michigan

@ChrisHarrisKS: Congrats @MittRomney!!! You beat @RickSantorum bt 4 points after leading him by 30 points a few months ago.

There's also a lot of talk about Santorum's comments about JFK - that JFK's speech about the separation of church and state - made Santorum vomit.  Apparently, Santorum made Catholics in Michigan vomit.

CBS's exit polls show 37 percent of Catholic voters in Michigan supporting the Pennsylvania Republican and 43 percent supporting the Massachusetts Republican. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul won 8 percent and 9 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, CNN exit polls in Arizona show Romney besting Santorum among Catholic voters by a margin of 41 percent to 35 percent.

And maybe, just maybe, the fact that Santorum stuck his neck out on this contraceptive insurance issue, in defense of the Catholic bishops, when regular Catholics don't tend to agree with the bishops (and thus Santorum) on this issue, or much of any issue. Santorum isn't a Catholic. He's a fringe Catholic, an opus dei Catholic (Santorum denies being a member, but he supports them and sent his kids to an opus dei school). There's a difference. And the polls in MI and AZ show that. Read the rest of this post...

Romney and Santorum neck and neck in Michigan

Keep in mind, Michigan is Romney's ancestral home (well, other than Mexico).  So Romney should not be having this hard of a time winning.  Also, I'd heard the other day that a lot of the early-voting went Romney's way, so that Santorum needs more than "breaking even" today in order to win the state tonight.  Ah ok, it was PPP, our favorite pollsters:

Even though things seem to be moving back in Santorum's direction, there's one big reason to think that Romney will still come out as the winner tomorrow night. 18% of the electorate has already cast its ballots and with those voters in the bank Romney has a 56-29 advantage. Santorum's likely to win election day voters, but he''s going to have to do it by a wide margin to erase the lead Romney has stored. We see Santorum with a 40-33 advantage among those who have yet to vote.

I'm still not sure I like this early voting thing. I get that it helps more people vote. But elections aren't about voting a week or a month early. They're about voting on election day. Lots of polls have one guy or another winning "today." But it's election day that matters. I'm just not so sure I like this idea of election day being a fluid thing. I'm all for making it easier to vote, since apparently we're so lazy, but we need to find a way to make it easier THAT SAME DAY. Read the rest of this post...

Democrats for Rick Santorum?

That's what the Santorum robocalls are all about. Why wouldn't a Democrat want to support him in the primaries? Romney won't be a pushover in November for a lot of reasons. One big reason is the lack of real difference between the Romney voting record and Obama's record. Santorum on the other hand would be the new 1964 Goldwater campaign on steroids.

The campaign has launched telephone robocalls throughout the state slamming rival Mitt Romney for opposing the auto industry bailout in late 2008 and early 2009, and urging Democrats to show up for Tuesday’s Republican primary and cast ballots for Santorum. “Michigan Democrats can vote in the Republican primary on Tuesday. Why is it so important?” the voice on the call says. “Romney supported the bailouts for his Wall Street, billionaire buddies, but opposed the auto bailouts. That was a slap in the face to every Michigan worker, and we’re not going to let Romney get away with it.” The call urges listeners to “send a loud message” to Romney by voting for Santorum, even though Santorum, too, opposed the auto industry bailout. It ends with the line: “This call is supported by hard-working Democratic men and women and paid for by Rick Santorum for president.”

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Santorum on separation of church and state makes him "want to throw up"

Why does Rick Santorum hate America and our founding fathers?  From HuffPost:

Rick Santorum on Sunday took on separation of church and state. "I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state are absolute," he told 'This Week' host George Stephanopoulos. "The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country...to say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes me want to throw up."

The GOP candidate was responding to comments he made last October. He had said that he "almost threw up" after reading JFK's 1960 speech in which he declared his commitment to the separation of church and state. Santorum also on Sunday told Meet The Press host David Gregory that separation of church and state was "not the founders' vision."

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