What I think he’s really doing is a favor for his friend Mitt Romney, hoping to undercut Sarah Palin’s votes within the Republican Party’s 'base' of religious voters, and, in his view, possibly saving the GOP in the process.The way Ralston figures it, Santorum's aim is to kneecap Palin in Iowa so that the state's religious base will split their votes, allowing Romney to cruise to an easy win on the votes of those Iowa Republicans who are not social conservatives. To support his theory, Ralston reminds us what happened in early 2008:
Mitt Romney was already virtually knocked out of the presidential race because of his poor showing in early primaries. Santorum took to the radio and came out swinging against John McCain, and had this to say about Romney in an appearance on Laura Ingraham’s show:That's may be true, but we don't see how much good Santorum actually did for Romney. McCain turned his given-up-for-dead bandwagon around, and even with more bundles of campaign cash than the others presidential wanabes could even dream of, Romney couldn't beat a rival who was detested by most of the GOP's conservative base.If you’re a Republican, if you’re a Republican in the broadest sense, there is only one place to go right now and that’s Mitt Romney.That’s a pretty strong endorsement from one man to another he knew at that time would not be the GOP’s presidential candidate. Santorum was throwing his weight behind Romney not just out of spite, but because he believes in Mitt in the long-term. He knew McCain wasn’t going to win and was trying to elect his party’s eventual standard-bearer with his big mouth.
Ralston thinks one of Santorum's motivations to help Mitt this time around is based on a strong dislike of Sarah Palin personally and politically. He cites the birth out of wedlock of Bristol Palin's child, for which Santorum allegedly holds Sarah Palin responsible. Rick's reasoning there would have to be that children are only born to unmarried girls who had lousy mothers who couldn't raise their daughters right. Politically, Ralston points to Santorum's appearance on Greta Van Susteren's show in which he indicated that by resigning her office, Palin had signed her own political death warrant and wouldn't be able to attract the votes of enough Republicans to win the general election. We think Sarah has a big surprise in store for St. Rick and no small number of other folks.
Regardless of his motivations, we know that the Rickster is a faux conservative, one who supported the liberal Arlen Specter over conservative Pat Toomey the last time around. Word gets around. Santorum's stabbing of a conservative in the back only serves to solidify his reputation as a loose cannon, and we just don't see him being able to make much of a difference in Iowa. Besides, why try to create a stalking horse in a state where Mike Huckabee will likely be runing to split the religious vote with Palin anyway? Unlike Santorum, Huckabee has proven clout in the Iowa, having already beaten Romney there in a dramatic upset victory.
But perhaps Ralston is partially right, and Santorum is just a fallback option in case Huckabee, for some unfathomable reason, decides not to compete for the GOP nomination in 2012. We can think of better candidates to play the stalking horse for Romney than Santorum, but none probably as willing as the Rickster to do it. After cutting Toomey's throat in Pennsylvania for Specter, playing the decoy for Romney would be a relatively minor sin for Santorum, who seems to have no problem sitting in judgment of the unholy trangressions of others.
- JP
I don't think it works quite as plainly in the dark as this. I agree Rick wouldn't appeal much to voters who would consider Palin, but then again it would be one culturalist who lost his own election versus a culturalist who quit her job, so who knows.
ReplyDeleteI also doubt Michael Huckabee will be that influencial if he for some reason gives it a second go. In 2008, no one much bothered to take off the gloves on him and, to his credit, he did run the best bang-for-the-buck campaign in the whole race. Yet despite his humor and charm, hype and passes from the media, Friar Huck was but a regional candidate last year. However, he seemed all the more willing to be McCain's...forget stalking horse...hatchetman as he was way too at ease existing solely to thwart Mitt Romney. It all seemed so very unchristian too. Anyway, what we can agree to conclude about Huckabee is that he is self-serving, and so he'll have to figure out what is best for himself. IF his TV gig is still viable, then does he risk it? If it isn't, he'll surely run. And, we'll know it because he'll start losing weight again before it's time to announce.
While I'm not devoted to Palin, I'm not writing her off either. I will give her great credit for her criticism of Obama's bizarre support for the House healthcare reform bill; she hit a homerun with her characterization of the end of life treatments as 'death panels'. Bravo on that one, Sarah.
If Santorum were to get into the Iowa race, he won't get more than 3% of the vote; thus he'll be a small factor.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is if Huckabee, Sarah, Pawlenty, and Santorum all enter and split the evangelical vote, that could open the door for Romney to actually take Iowa.
To sell a book, or get on TV, go to Iowa and pretend you are running for President. Maybe even run.
ReplyDeleteIs he writing a book, needing attention, or looking for work?
Maybe the book, "How Sarah Beat Me Like A Drum In Iowa" would sell.
Why is Santorum suddenly on Greta all the time lately? I just don't like him. Didn't he lose his seat to someone else?
ReplyDelete