Rick Santorum enters into GOP Presidential race

[Crossroads Inc.]

From Yahoo News

SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) — Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum was set to announce on Monday what has been expected for months: He is running for president.
Santorum, the former No. 3 Republican in the U.S. Senate and a favorite among his party's anti-abortion rights bloc, planned to make official his White House aspirations from the western Pennsylvania coal fields where his Italian immigrant grandfather worked. He has already hired a small staff and has made frequent visits to early voting states New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina.

The blunt-talking conservative lacks the name recognition and fundraising organization of his better-known rivals, but the two-term senator's advisers are counting on social conservatives who have huge sway in some early nominating states and have yet to settle on a favorite candidate.
So far, those social conservatives are weighing already declared candidates such as former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and potential contenders Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Santorum, a lawyer by training, had been laying the groundwork for a presidential bid when he lost a bruising re-election bid to the Senate in 2006. His opposition to abortion, gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research makes him an appealing candidate for conservatives. But his sometimes abrasive style alienated voters in Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania, and they replaced him with Bob Casey, an anti-abortion Democrat.

Santorum's policy positions align with national conservatives who now are looking at many of the expected candidates with skepticism.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's changes of heart on gay rights and abortion do little to help his second presidential effort. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is twice divorced. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who worked for three Republican administrations, nonetheless accepted President Barack Obama's offer to be the U.S. ambassador to China.
Santorum, 52, has his own hurdles to overcome: He has been out of elective office since 2007 and lacks the robust fundraising or personal wealth of his likely rivals.

Earlier this year, he established a presidential exploratory committee to start raising money and joined the first — though ill-attended — Republican presidential debate in South Carolina. He is expected at next Monday's debate in New Hampshire, which is likely to include more of the expected field.

So the man who was voted out of office in his home state for being too much of a wacko is now going to try and win the Presidency, amazing.
Said it before and I'll say it again, with the current GOP, any candidate who is conservative enough to win the nomination, will by default be TOO conservative to win the general election.

[FaxModem1]

I think this applies.

http://www.spreadingsantorum.com/

Seriously though, how much of a battle royale will the GOP be in 2012?

[Norseman]

I'm sorry but Santorum can't possibly win anything unless he solves his webproblem fast.

[SpaceMarine93]

You mean that senator who is:

- Promoting of an unscientific theory in school with a religious agenda (intelligent Design)

- Spoken biased statements discriminating homosexuals and catholic priests

- Despises immigrants

- Contributes greatly to Faux News

- So socially conservative that he despises modern culture as liberal and therefore degenerate

- INSULTED THE ENTIRETY OF THE CITY OF BOSTON ON PREVIOUS POINT IN ONE INTERVIEW

- Suggests penalties for those who refuses to leave during evacuation warnings before disasters such as hurricanes, against their rights

- Failed to prevent security throwing out four teenagers for speaking against him in a mall before a schedule visit sometime ago, again against their rights

- Wholeheartedly supported the Iraq War, which everyone knows has no weapons of mass destruction, went in to overthrow the evil dictator for less-than-moral reasons and had become a military quagmire that costs more money per than the funding NASA space program receives IN HALF A CENTURY at its height, and almost giving America another Vietnam level Epic Defeat

- Failed miserably in trying to promote religious freedom in work place and passes law promoting anti-animal abuse measures, his only redeeming qualities

- NO ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENTS WHATSOEVER

- Nor any achievements actually

is running for president?

Look, I'm not even going to comment on this. I mean, what happened to America, man, whatever happened to us? How can such a person could even be voted in as a senator?

[Mr Bean]

I'd add to your list
- Is an open and professed anti-gay Bigot. Not as in says he does not like Gay marriage but has said several times that homosexuality should be criminalized and those caught committing those acts should be jailed. Not even the Republican talking heads like Michael Steel who spends his time defending Herman Caen and Michell Bachmann takes Santorum seriously. He remains the line of "to conservative" as in "way to open with how much he hates minority groups"

[SpaceMarine93]

Dammit I mean, are people really that stupid enough to vote for him? If so I bet people would be stupid enough to vote for Palin even if Jon Huntsman Jr. becomes a candidate.

I mean, even Huntsman is better choice than Rick; at least Huntsman is a political moderate and a rational person who is better and could achieve in every level more than this guy ever could. What had this homophobic, anti intellectual and utterly insensitive failure called Rick ever did for those voters anyway?

[Eframepilot]

I think this applies.

http://www.spreadingsantorum.com/

Seriously though, how much of a battle royale will the GOP be in 2012?

Anticlimactic. Unless a strong contender appears, Romney will win the nomination by default, no matter how much the base hates him.

[D.Turtle]

And how will he win the primaries if the base hates him?

The person who will win the primaries - IMHO - is the one who can best use populist messaging in order to sell the vision of an America that will fulfill its old promise of freedom, etc. And that person will at the same time have to have a relatively impeccable standard of being anti-abortion.

Whoever fills that niche, will have the social conservatives and the fiscal conservatives on his side.

[SpaceMarine93]

I think this applies.

http://www.spreadingsantorum.com/

Seriously though, how much of a battle royale will the GOP be in 2012?

Anticlimactic. Unless a strong contender appears, Romney will win the nomination by default, no matter how much the base hates him.

How about Huntsman, or Ron Paul? Or Hermann Cain, who just bested 5 candidates in a Fox News debate recently?

[Akhlut]

I think this applies.

http://www.spreadingsantorum.com/

Seriously though, how much of a battle royale will the GOP be in 2012?

Anticlimactic. Unless a strong contender appears, Romney will win the nomination by default, no matter how much the base hates him.

How about Huntsman, or Ron Paul? Or Hermann Cain, who just bested 5 candidates in a Fox News debate recently?

Huntsman might actually be decent, as he's not a total loon, but he faces some name recognition problems and some on the loony end of the far right might see him working for the Obama administration as poison. As it is, though, he might be the best choice.

Ron Paul is big with the Libertarians, but I think a lot of the Religious Wing of the Republican Party might have a problem with his well-publicized statements about legalizing heroin and other hard drugs.

Herman Cain has name recognition problems as well, and he might get called out on openly recognizing the Paul Ryan plan for being a voucher program for Medicare (which he outright supported). Oh, and simply supporting the Paul Ryan plan might poison the well for him for a lot of people.

[xerex]

Herman Cain might become the Pat Buchanan of this race, but he wont derail Romney who's on his way to be Bob Dole

[D.Turtle]

Romney will never be the candidate.

Ever heard of Romneycare?

[Crossroads Inc.]

Mitt Romney is the perfect proof for my current theory. He is perhaps the most level headed and resonable choice for the GOP's main election. He can connect to people in the middle, he does not hold any truely wacky views, he does not have a lot of skeletons in his closet.

And yet, because of all of this, he will never be able to get the nomination. If he DOES win the nomination, I'd eat my Hat.

[SpaceMarine93]

Can somebody please destroy the Republican party now, before its insanity spreads to other political groups in America? Call it containment

[Force Lord]

SM93, for that to happen nearly half of the US (at least) would have to be contained. Obviously that's not gonna happen.

[General Mung Beans]

Not a big fan of Santorum but this is misleading in many points.

- So socially conservative that he despises modern culture as liberal and therefore degenerate

A lot of people from all angles hate modern culture including many members of this board.

- Wholeheartedly supported the Iraq War, which everyone knows has no weapons of mass destruction, went in to overthrow the evil dictator for less-than-moral reasons and had become a military quagmire that costs more money per than the funding NASA space program receives IN HALF A CENTURY at its height, and almost giving America another Vietnam level Epic Defeat

Which in the end the US eked a victory out of and then you need to blame all the Congressmen and politicians who supported the Iraq War including all the Democrats who supported it before it became unfashionable.

- Failed miserably in trying to promote religious freedom in work place and passes law promoting anti-animal abuse measures, his only redeeming qualities

Not his fault it failed. By that logic since most of his bad measures have also not become law does that take away from his badness?


[/quote]Look, I'm not even going to comment on this. I mean, what happened to America, man, whatever happened to us? How can such a person could even be voted in as a senator?[/quote]

He also got voted out in 2006. And I can ask questions like this:
-How could the Democratic Party have put Henry Wallace, a heartbeat away from the Presidency?
-How can Texas still have Jessica Farrar in office who calls for a bill excusing infanticide and downgrading it from murder?
-How can France have given Jean Marie Le-Pen second place in the French presidential election?

I could go on about this....

[General Mung Beans]

Mitt Romney is the perfect proof for my current theory. He is perhaps the most level headed and resonable choice for the GOP's main election. He can connect to people in the middle, he does not hold any truely wacky views, he does not have a lot of skeletons in his closet.

And yet, because of all of this, he will never be able to get the nomination. If he DOES win the nomination, I'd eat my Hat.

He's more likely than Palin or Santorum or any of the other Tea Partyistas. And the big problem is not so much his centrism as his mass flip-flopping.