Rich, since you mention it, I mourn the collapse of Mrs. Bachmann’s campaign. I know the insiders’ rap on her — she’s had 47 foster children but 53 chiefs of staff, etc — but I thought in the debates she punched above her weight, and she got the urgency. She understands that this November is the last chance for serious course correction. I’m not sure how many others do. I’m grateful for the times she cited my book, while obviously regretting that the frequency of citations proved to be inversely proportional to her poll numbers. Funny how that works. Also, I find her rather hot, which is more than I can say about Ron Paul or Newt, or even Jon Huntsman when he does that open-necked shirt thing.
But, as Jonah says, we’re all settling this season. Rick Santorum is a wee bit too far down the compassionate-conservative end for my tastes, but he gave (as Newt would say) an extraordinarily remarkably profoundly good speech last night. Maggie got the right adjective: “grounded” — very real, very secure, very grown-up. Mitt did himself no favors by dashing on immediately afterwards and burbling cheesy stump-speech boilerplate. As readers will know, I broadly agree with Santorum that, ultimately, culture trumps economics — or, as he puts it, you can’t have limited government and a strong economy without strong families. But no doubt by the time the media are through with him that will be assumed to mean he has a secret plan to lock up the sodomites.
Rick-wise, I’m glad the guy who pledges to make Washington as irrelevant to our lives as possible is staying in, and even more pleased to find that he’s been rehearsing the title song from Mel Brooks’ Men In Tights. Just what he needs at this stage.
But, as things stand, it looks like just another November in which the GOP have to figure out a way to drag their guy across the finish line. Plus ça change . . .
The TARP-supporting, self-styled Queen of the TEA Party, has bowed out.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo, Santorum is still in.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseVery funny, and brings an otherwise off-topic post back on topic.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNice try troll. However, Bachmann was one of the biggest TARP critics in DC. In fact, she has been one of the few Republicans to stand up to the current Repub leadership in DC to try to help them develop some spine so that they can actually do something besides repeating '1/2 of 1/3 of...'.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI wasn't trolling, I was just incorrect.
She is, however, the self-styled Queen of the TEA Party, and attempting to co-opt an organic popular movement for fiscal restraint and turn it into an inside-the-beltway Caucus to her own benefit.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseprove it
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse*ABO 2012, people
*except Pon Raul
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse>Rick Santorum is a wee bit too far down the compassionate-conservative end for my tastes,
How about light-years down the road?
>ultimately, culture trumps economics
That's true, but you have to be awfully careful to provide the context of the phrase and the precision in which it is applied, otherwise is just one more club to be used by the statists to beat on the reality of economic law and declare its irrelevance -- which is the direction Santorum is pointing. Let me put it this way: A culture of strong-families is important, but generally speaking, families that are able to sustain themselves economically are more likely to stick together and remain strong despite the government inspired tempations around them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePerry is smart to stay in. If he gives a real push in South Carolina, he can win that state. But he's going to have to do what Santorm did, and absolutely do hand to hand, old style retail politics there. He's going to have to meet as many people face to face as possible and convince that that A) he's one of them, and B) being Governor of Texas makes him better suited for the job than Santorum or Gingrich. There's so much hostility to Romney there that he can simply invoke Romney a lot to win. "Who do you want in the White House... Mitt or me?".
If he can't get it done in SC though, he can't win anywhere else and should drop out. SC ought to be interesting.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's a crying shame Mark Steyn can't run for president. His analysis is dead on... Santorum might as well be George W. Bush. If you want a government caretaker he's your guy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseExcept that Santorum has no class,no humor and pretty much no accomplishments. Otherwise pretty close to W.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo class?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSantorum got welfare reform passed in the 90's. Not a bad accomplishment.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe progressive left always claim that every Republican, if elected, will "lock up the sodomites" and outlaw abortion. Strange, how this never actually happens. Eight years of the Bush Theocracy passed without so much as a single fern bar shut down by the Morality Police.
You would think, after a time, people would stop believing in this boogeyman.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseExactly @Gregory...as I recall, the last time the feds kicked in the front door of a private residence in the middle of the night with automatic weapons drawn and pointed at a 5 year old asylum-seeker was per the order of lefty favorite Janet Reno...how soon they forget.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe reason fern bars have survived is because too many RINOs clandestinely yearn for a good banana daiquiris.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"The progressive left always claim that every Republican, if elected, will "lock up the sodomites" and outlaw abortion."
Well, you keep nominating guys who explicitly say that abortion should be illegal, so that fact that it is not isn't for lack of trying.
As for locking up the "sodomites", that one is a joke, right? I don't ever recall any progressive lefty making that claim.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSantorum is not any more into 'big government' than Romney or Gingrich- just because they are not soaked to the bone libertarians does not mean they cannot be good conservatives. As for abortion, the reason abortion is legal is because of the Supreme Court. It is as simple as that. As you know, most states have all sorts of restrictions on abortion that Obama and co. do not support. As for marriage, nobody is going to be locked up if marriage is defined a particular way. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz denounced the GOP's views on marriage as 'un-American'- I guess she thinks that 62% of the people of Florida are un-American too?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe reason abortion in the first trimester is legal everywhere in U.S. is because of the Supreme Court. Even if Roe v Wade was overturned tomorrow, it has 0% chance of becoming illegal in my state.
Well if Debbie Wasserman-Shultz thinks 62% of Florida is "un-American" that's better than someone like Ann Coulter who has been making money for years by calling liberals and democrats un-American. I truly despise when anyone - republican or democrat- calls someone's patriotism into question simply because they have a different opinion.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseClareita finally gets it - abortion should be a states rights issue, not a federal issue. Sorry to say she didn't realize she gave the correct answer, but she hit it out of the park with her "0% chance of becoming illegal in my state."
Most of the issues the Federal government has assumed for our "good" should be relegated to the states. Everyone needs to take a second look at Perry because this is one of his strengths.
PS the same is true of birth control availability.
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