Tweet
Even though Rick Santorum has ended his campaign for the Republican nomination, he did achieve something rather impressive. Despite having little money or media buzz, he managed to become the only true anti-Romney alternative in what was a very crowded field. He won 11 contests, far more than any other candidate besides Romney. Once the voting started, Santorum was the only candidate who at least had a small chance of stopping Romney.
This naturally leads to the question, is Santorum really a highly skilled politician, or was he simply the least bad Romney alternative in a field of highly flawed candidates? The answer could play an important role in whether or not Santorum could succeed in a possible 2016 run.
Santorum has been involved in politics for decades, and he clearly has some real experience and skills. But it seems his success here was mostly due to others’ weaknesses. Santorum didn’t really beat the other Romney alternatives who surged before him as much as he simply watched them self-implode.
- Rick Perry destroyed his campaign by failing to talk in complete sentences. If Rick Perry managed to consistently string five words together without messing up, Santorum would never had gotten as far as he did.
- Herman Cain’s campaign fell apart quickly once details of his problematic personal life were revealed.
- Jon Huntsman somehow convinced himself that the Republican base was unwilling to rally around Romney because Romney is a moderate Mormon who is the out of touch rich scion of a powerful family. Yet Huntsman thought this meant the base would instead embrace him, even though Huntsman is also a moderate Mormon who is the rich scion of a powerful family.
- Newt Gingrich led Santorum for a while, but Gingrich’s incredibly high negatives with regular voters, massive amounts of baggage and horribly managed campaign eventually undid him.
It is tough to think of a single other candidate Santorum actually beat; he just watched them fail. The base only turned to Santorum after almost ever other alternative in turn proved themselves to be deeply flawed.
Probably the strongest evidence for Santorum’s inherent weakness is that Mitt Romney easily beat him, even though Romney has historically bad favorability ratings.
There is no doubt that Santorum was the best and strongest of the many Romney alternatives this cycle, but that was not a high bar to clear. Being the best of a bad lot still doesn’t mean you are actually good.
25 Comments
Romney is unpopular among Republican primary voters. Then, now, and in the months to come. So there was an opportunity for a single not-Romney to emerge.
Of the various Republican factions, Santorum appealed to the the largest. He is, however, an even worse campaigner than Romney, and simply never had enough money to fight back effectively.
Let’s remember that before the “fall” of Palin, Bachmann, Cain, Perry (and that was certainly a train wreck) and Gingrich, Santorum was LAST except the other Mormon “what’s his name”. He was polling in NH at 2-4%. He was never a good candidate, merely a moron, a religious zealot and santimonius dipshit. He never got any support except from the religious right, the evangelicals Christians, and the desperate “not-Romney” bunch. This guy came out against masturbation. And all I can say about that is, “You can take my dick away when you pry it from my cold, dead, hand.”
Was Santorum A) A Good Candidate or B) Simply the Least Awful of the Non-Romneys?
The correct answer is B. Though one might also make the case that Santorum was simply the last notRomney standing and, if he had taken the lead early, he would have faded long ago too. I don’t think Santorum has any future. His future’s all used up (apologies to Touch of Evil).
Being a Texan, you guys MUST admit, Perry was the most entertaining!!!!
There’s three things we are known for here in Texas:
We grow ‘em big.
We grow ‘em funny.
..
..
And……what’t the third thing………ooops. I forget.
I award you with the internets for the day.
I’ve been sittin’ on that one for almost a week.
Wasn’t his excuse that he’d had recent back surgery and was doped to the gills?
I thought guys sat on theirs all the time.
(rimshot)
I was gonna post something, given the pinata that was served up above, but it seems you have everything well ‘in hand’ here!
That’s like asking if Pat Robertson is a highly skilled salesman, and the answer lies not in the flim-flammer, but in the flim-flamees.
I’m gonna miss Little Ricky. He frequently brought us all a smile.
P.S. I want my line entered in the weekly drawing!
Thanks!
On edit – mixed company. Nevermind.
hard to swallow rick santorum and the words “good” and “best” in the same sentence.
After the totally incompetent wack jobs dropped out, leaving the last four, Santorum was the only refuge for the ignorant, anti-science, evangelical, fundamentalist Christian base of the Republican Party. His campaign slogan was “Faith, Family, and Freedom”, in that order. If Romney wasn’t a member of that “suspect religious cult” of Mormon’s, that many on the right suspect aren’t real Christians, the contest would have been over months ago. They were never going to embrace Ron Paul, whose foreign policy actually embraced the “golden rule” that is the fundamental concept of the religion they claim to follow, and Newt was just too “Newty”.
Ew! You’re not supposed to swallow the santorum, you’re supposed to clean it up with a moist towel.
Right on. Santorum beat the drum for the Christian extremists knowing they love the tune.
But still, he illustrated the stupidity of Obama to cave in to the SuperPak bullshit. That moment in the State of the Union address when he called out the Supreme Court to their face could have been his proudest moment and then he blew it, as Santorum demonstrated.
Excellent analysis. You ought to have a radio show.
I think that you may be doing it the wrong way.
Good information to have.
Better: http://www.uline.com/BL_6544/Napkins-and-Wet-Wipes?pricode=WQ898&gclid=CIzsxfeura8CFYReTAodC0gKkw
LOL!
I thought my analysis was just common sense, which is a misnamed quality. Were I to have a radio show, I would be fired and probably disappeared by the PTB. I prefer to not be labeled as a threat by the Corporatocracy before I can make my escape.
I think Santorum and Perry are the two MOST awful of the bunch.
Cain’s personal foibles aren’t too relevant at this late, too convenient time. Gingrich is at least interesting , sometimes, in a clownish way. Neither is boring.
Perry is incompetent in front of a camera. Santorum appeals to bigotry more than any of the others (who are also complicit in that regard), and Santorum is the most undeserving of polite company. Both of them are boring.
So why bother parsing any of them? One may well become the second reason, among many, to vote against Romney
Santorum beat Ron Paul, further confirming the insanity of the Republican base.
I’m only sorry he didn’t hang on long enough to get destroyed (again) in Pennsylvania. That might have crushed him for good…now here we are talking about 2016!