I Guess I Wasn’t The Only One
By Mitch Berg
There apparently are a lot of Republicans out there who aren’t ready to accept Mitt Romney as “inevitable” just yet. Santorum won Minnesota, and won pretty big.
The PiPress:
Santorum’s victory in Minnesota, combined with a win in the nonbinding Missouri primary and another win in Colorado’s caucuses, is almost certain to prolong the Republican nominating contest and make the former Pennsylvania senator, not Gingrich, the conservative alternative to the more moderate Romney.
Speaking in Missouri, Santorum said the votes there and in Minnesota “were heard loud and louder all across this country.”
The Minnesota results marked a reversal for Gingrich, who had been Romney’s strongest challenger.
Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley told the Pioneer Press his candidate’s strong showing makes him the biggest threat on Romney’s right.
Conservatism’s not rolling over and playing dead.
If Romney wants this nomination – or spare himself and the party quite a few Maalox moments on the way – he’s gotta step up his conservative game.
Chopping Obamacare would be a great start.
February 8th, 2012 at 7:31 am
I am loathe to say this, and would love to be proven wrong. Mitt Romney may not be inevitable, but if he is not, Obama is. That is too bad, but that’s the way I see it.
February 8th, 2012 at 7:47 am
I’m rather glad the pundits keep stumbling after predicting victory for one candidate or another. Isn’t the contest supposed to be decided at the convention? I’m old school. I remember when a convention wasn’t a victory lap for the media anointed candidate. That started to change big time in 1968 when, after Gene McCarthy placed better than expected in a New Hampshire primary that President Johnson hadn’t even entered, although he collected a majority of the write-in votes. The MSM declared McCarthy the winner and things haven’t been the same since. It’s about time the people took back the electoral process from the suits in New York and DC. I’m for an open convention. Let the lawfully selected delegates pick the nominee.
February 8th, 2012 at 7:53 am
“Chopping Obamacare would be a great start.”
Umm, Mitch, I don’t think you can get much clearer than:
“Our next president must repeal Obamacare and replace it with market-based reforms that empower states and individuals and reduce health care costs. States and private markets, not the federal government, hold the key to improving our health care system”.
(Cut and pasted from Romney’s website)
…
February 8th, 2012 at 8:15 am
Why is anyone surprised at the outcome of any of the GOP races thus far? Iowa’s first vote was “won” by Bachmann in large part due to the coupons she handed out for support. Then Santorum won the real event by the narrowest of squeakers with results announced much later. Then Romney wins in New Hampshire, where he should. Then Gingrich wins South Carolina because no one there would vote for a Yankee first over a neighbor, no matter what the neighbor has done in the past. There’s enough older transplanted folks in Florida for Romney to win there, and Gingrich’s naughty and flipping-flopping past could not be overlooked by anyone with a television. GOP of Minnesota and Missouri voted for Santorum because he is a good, clean family man with solid values. Colorado went as it would; the combination of West and Midwest who live there can accept either Romney or Santorum. So, in the end, you will see a Romney-Santorum ticket that is quite dull and uninspiring. I don’t think Ron Paul is much interested in being a VP or perhaps even the P. But his continual emphasis on “delegates” means the Party cannot shove him off to the side like it did in St. Paul in 2008. And as for the pundits? Their job is more speculative entertainment than insight. I will give David Gergen a pass, but not George Will or Krauthammer, the Old New World Order guys. So when the real election comes around, would someone please tell the Santorum supporters to take the Limbaugh quotes off the campaign literature?
February 8th, 2012 at 8:19 am
With every Santorum victory, the smile on the President’s face gets a little broader. But it’s kinda cute how the ultra-conservatives actually think they matter.
February 8th, 2012 at 9:45 am
If I’m gong to keep commenting here, the one thing you’ll need to know is this:
Never take my political predictions as having any correlation, either positive or negative, with what eventually happens!
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/general_election_santorum_vs_obama-2912.html.
I swear the Fates do this just to @#$%! with me.
February 8th, 2012 at 10:25 am
“If Romney wants this nomination – or spare himself and the party quite a few Maalox moments on the way – he’s gotta step up his conservative game.”
To do that, he must first create one.
February 8th, 2012 at 10:44 am
“Chopping Obamacare would be a great start.”
Umm, Mitch, I don’t think you can get much clearer than:
“Our next president must repeal Obamacare and replace it with market-based reforms that empower states and individuals and reduce health care costs. States and private markets, not the federal government, hold the key to improving our health care system”.
(Cut and pasted from Romney’s website)
So basically Romney already came out for repealing Obamacare long before people decided to caucus for other candidates in the hopes of getting him to come out for repealing Obamacare.
There’s another reason why this strategy of caucusing for Santorum in the hopes of pulling Romney to the right doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Santorum isn’t more conservative than any of the other candidate on anything other than social issues (except for foreign policy compared to Paul) and if anything he’s weaker on spending, growing government and more inclined to be sympathetic to labor unions and the industries that employ them.
If Romney decides to change his stance or focus on any issues after the non-binding caucuses last night (doubtful) in response to Santorum he’s going to do what – call for a federal ban on obscene material on the internet? Promise to ramp up FCC enforcement? Have Congress put its effort into passing a new ban or regulation on a rare abortion procedure every week? Double down on a federal marriage amendment? Reinvigorate “compassionate conservatism”? At the end of the day those are pretty much the things that Santorum cares about and I’m not sure that having Romney take his focus off reinvigorating private sector economic growth and reigning in spending and regulations to co-opt Rick Snatorum’s positions on social issues is really what TEA Party and/or more libertarian voters want. But YMMV.
February 8th, 2012 at 10:52 am
GOP of Minnesota and Missouri voted for Santorum because he is a good, clean family man with solid values.
That’s pretty much true of Romney and Paul as well. I think Minnesota and Missouri turned out for Santorum largely because (a) he focused a lot of his limited resources there and (b) social conservatives while not enough to carry a general election can be enough to carry a primary or caucus in some areas (like Iowa).
February 8th, 2012 at 10:54 am
I’ll echo what golfdoc 50 said, it won’t bother me if the winner isn’t decided until the convention.
Come late summer Issa and Grassley may be putting a damper on Barry’s invincibility.
February 8th, 2012 at 12:16 pm
OJ; Ron Paul did better than I expected. How about you?
February 8th, 2012 at 12:32 pm
You know, bosshoss, I thought Ron Paul would do even better than he did. Minnesotans aren’t afraid to support and vote for someone new. I also believe there a very large number of Minnesotans who traditionally vote DFL would vote for Ron Paul in a heartbeat. And I think people under 25 years old are in sync with his views. I can’t say his son is the same, but if he is, there’s hope. In my view, Romney and Gingrich are far worse candidates than McCain could ever have been. McCain was cooked the day the market fell off the cliff.
February 8th, 2012 at 1:30 pm
“Minnesotans aren’t afraid to support and vote for someone new.”
Yup! We have no further to look than Jesse Ventura to realize that!
As I have indicated here before, I like Paul, too, but the lefty media is already ginning up to make an issue of his age. Even though his character seems to be beyond reproach, I do not think that he can win, even if he ends up being the nominee. That said, if he indeed ended up being the GOP candidate, I could see a groundswell of those people that currently feel the same as I do, that might otherwise have voted DFL, turning out in droves to vote. Having kids that are in their mid 20’s, I know that peer pressure gave Obumbler a huge boost in 2008. If Ron Paul can get that same boost, we could end up having another “shock the world” election.
February 8th, 2012 at 1:43 pm
I hope it plays out like this…….just as T-Paw had to do in his first run for governor, Romney will realize that he needs to prove his conservative credientals. He does so now, completes the nomination wrap up soon. Wins in November.
I don’t think it benefits the Republican party to drag on the nomination. Democats seem to think that Romney is the toughtest candidate we have against Obama.
February 8th, 2012 at 1:45 pm
Interesting note…..I had a some former DFLers in my caucus last night. “Recovering liberal” one called himself. One is socially liberal but wants a strong foriegn policy. Most are fiscally conservative and the debt scares them. Hence why they now are Republicans….realized that you can’t keep growing gov’t.
February 8th, 2012 at 4:20 pm
or, Chuck, they could have all been really wasted.
February 8th, 2012 at 4:54 pm
Ah Ears. Is there any other kind BUT an “ultra-conservative” in your world?
February 8th, 2012 at 6:13 pm
But it’s kinda cute how the ultra-conservatives actually think they matter.
I guess those would be the tea party folks who engineered a historical change in Congress and stopped Obama’s proposed tax increases cold.
February 8th, 2012 at 9:01 pm
You’re an “English Language Guy”, Mitch. Can’t you devise some “adjective index” to rate comments and flag those that describe the commenter’s state of mind more rather than the noun they describe?
February 8th, 2012 at 10:07 pm
At some point, we’ll have to break you of this habit of thinking Mitt’s got a “conservative game.” He doesn’t. He never will.
Further, the example of Brian Sullivan pushing TPaw right worked because TPaw had ambitions beyond Governor of Minnesota. Pushing Mitt right won’t work because his ambitions end with being POTUS. How do you push someone who’s achieved his biggest goal in life?
February 9th, 2012 at 6:03 am
It’s a Santorum surge! Minnesota is covered with Santorum!
February 9th, 2012 at 1:26 pm
And AC vomits all over the feed with his bs…