Tag Archives: Rick Santorum

News

Evangelicals in Iowa rally to Rick Santorum, pushing him into 3rd place

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The leftist Washington Post reports.

Excerpt:

The CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week showed Santorum moving into third place in Iowa at 16 percent.

[…]The poll showed Santorum taking 22 percent of born-again Christians, moving him into first place among that group. And if he can make other born-agains believe that he’s the one viable alternative to Romney and Paul, then maybe he can create enough of a rallying effect to unite evangelicals behind his campaign.

“That bandwagon effect at the end can be very powerful in moving numbers dramatically in the last five days,” said former Iowa Republican Party chairman Steve Grubbs, pointing to Huckabee’s win.

There’s also the fact that many voters are receptive to Santorum; other polling has suggested he is a popular second-choice pick.

That suggests voters want to vote for Santorum, but perhaps didn’t see him as someone who could actually win. But if they now see him as a viable option, maybe they move into his camp.

“So it means he still has upside — beyond evangelicals but certainly including them,” said Nick Ryan, the founder of the pro-Santorum super PAC that is current running a quarter-million dollars worth of ads in the Hawkeye State.

The problem, though, is that Santorum is running against two other lower-tier candidates — Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann — who have significant appeal to evangelicals as well. And they aren’t so far behind Santorum (they take 11 percent and 9 percent, respectively) that they wouldn’t also appear to be viable options.

[…]For either Perry or Bachmann, finishing behind Santorum in Iowa likely means the end of their campaign, and that means that Santorum is going to have to work at stealing their supporters.

But at least for now, it appears that he has a genuine opportunity to steal votes from a large pool of voters that doesn’t like either of the two frontrunners.

And given the topsy-turvy nature of the race in Iowa, it isn’t out of the question to think he he could pick up enough votes to win.

Let’s confirm Santorum’s surging poll numbers with this Fox News article.

Excerpt:

After a poll Wednesday showed Santorum suddenly moving into third position in Iowa, a Rasmussen Reports survey released Thursday showed the same line-up. The poll showed Mitt Romney and Ron Paul in a dead heat, with 23 and 22 percent respectively, and Santorum in third with 16 percent.

In a troubling sign for Newt Gingrich, the same survey showed the ex-House speaker tied for fourth with Rick Perry.

The polls nationally and in Iowa have been notoriously fickle this season, and the shape of the race just five days out is no guarantee of any particular outcome on caucus day. Also, national polling continues to show Santorum in the low single digits, leading only former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.

Just to be clear, if you are a pure social conservative, there here is the candidate ranking for you:

  1. Rick Santorum (Persuasive, Good positions, legislative record, voting record)
  2. Michele Bachmann (Good positions, legislative record, voting record)
  3. Newt Gingrich (Good positions, voting record)
  4. Rick Perry (Good positions, legislative record)
  5. John Huntsman  (Pro-life, pro-gay-rights)
  6. Ron Paul (effectively pro-abortion, effectively pro-gay-marriage)
  7. Mitt Romney (Record is pro-abortion, pro-gay-rights)

Santorum gets the edge over Bachmann because he is more persuasive on abortion and marriage – he actually tries to convince people who don’t agree with him. They both take the right positions and have good records of activism, but Santorum is a social conservative apologist. Social conservatives should not vote for anyone other than Bachmann or Santorum. Perry would be the lowest I would go when everything is factored in.

Videos

Watch the ABC Republican primary debate that drew 7.6 million viewers

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Here’s the video of the debate.

And here’s the story from Reuters:

Saturday night’s GOP debate was the most-watched of the 2012 campaign as an average of 7.6 million viewers tuned in to watch the presidential candidates take on such hot topics as unemployment and immigration.

Despite a relatively late start time — 9 p.m. on the East Coast — 2.1 million of those viewers were in the key adults 25-54 viewer group.

Both of those numbers beat the previous highs, held by Fox News in total viewers (6.11 million on September 22) and MSNBC in the 25-54 demographic (1.73 million on September 7).

They were also well ahead of the numbers for the only other debate on one of the major broadcast networks, CBS News’ telecast on Nov 12.

Moderated by Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos, the ABC debate was broadcast live from Des Moines, Iowa, with the Iowa caucus — the first tally of the election season — less than a month away.

Between the two current front-runners — Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich — Gingrich was seen as the winner of the contest, which was also hosted by Yahoo News, the Republican Party of Iowa and the Des Moines Register.

I wrote before about who won the debate: Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann tied for the win.

News

Newt Gingrich and Michaele Bachmann won the Iowa debate, Romney lost

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That’s not me saying that… that’s CBS News.

Excerpt:

WINNERS

Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich is now clearly the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president. Saturday’s debate in Iowa was the first one since he has surged in the polls and Gingrich handled it with his usual aplomb. Many expected the debate to be a full-throated attack on the former House speaker, but shots were fired at both Gingrich and Mitt Romney, which helps Gingrich.

His recent surge stemmed in part because of impressive debate performances and he was clearly at ease on the stage Saturday. Many of his answers showed more depth than his rivals, especially his lengthy factual explanation of why he changed his position on a very important issue for voters: the individual mandate to buy health insurance. He also struck Mitt Romney hard in the early part of the debate, telling Romney that the reason he is also not a professional politician is because he lost a 1994 bid to unseat Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy. And, perhaps most significantly, the thrice-married Gingrich had as strong an answer on questions of infidelity as could be expected. He directly addressed the issue, acknowledging mistakes and said he is older and wiser now.

Michele Bachmann

Bachmann also did quite well for herself Saturday night, and sought to go after both Gingrich and Romney by calling them “Newt Romney” in a sustained attack for what she called their similarities (Gingrich and Romney both took issue with the characterization). It may be too late for the Minnesota lawmaker. She has essentially bet her entire campaign on winning Iowa, but she has struggled to get out of the lower tier in opinion polls and Gingrich’s surge makes it even harder for her to be a top-tier candidate. Saturday was the first debate since businessman Herman Cain dropped out of the race, and Bachmann sought to woo his former supporters but it appeared a bit too transparent and insincere. Not to mention that most of Cain’s supporters have already moved on, many even before his officially ended his bid last week.

And the loser:

LOSERS

Mitt Romney

Romney has been strong in most of the debates until now, though this debate he may have lost for not winning. While most of his answers were adequate, Saturday’s debate was about whether Gingrich could take the heat and Gingrich clearly won. On top of that, Romney challenged Texas Gov. Rick Perry to a $10,000 bet about what he said in his book about the Massachusetts health care plan and its connection to President Obama’s signature legislative achievement. Romney may have won the spat with Perry (who didn’t actually bite), but betting that kind of money may have backfired and perpetuated Romney’s image as someone who does not have empathy with average voters because of his enormous wealth.

I think I just heard Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt, Jennifer Rubin, and the entire staff of National Review sobbing uncontrollably. It was a bad night for RINOs who want to give short shrift to social issues. They just saw their RINO candidate go down in flames on national television.

And more, this time from the left-wing The Daily Beast.

Excerpt:

Newt not only survived, but thrived, and showed why he deserves to be the frontrunner and why he’s not likely to lose altitude quickly.

And Mitt Romney, after a series of flawless debate performances, made a huge unforced error proposing a $10,000 bet. Basic errors and bad moments are one thing. But when you make a mistake that reminds people of your greatest vulnerability, it can be a campaign killer.

The Mitt moment reminds me of when John Kerry took the stage in front of a hall of veterans and tried to explain a vote against funding American troops in battle, and said: “I actually voted for it, before I voted against it.”

Michelle Bachmann had a very strong performance and tied together the two frontrunners as Newt Romney: both similarly inconsistent in their conservative orthodoxy.

Newt wins hands down. The whole story line as I wrote earlier was whether Newt would walk off the stage without being bloodied. And he walked off the stage like Mohammed Ali without a scratch. And knocked Romney to the canvas by reminding the audience that Mitt Romney would be a career politician if he hadn’t lost to Ted Kennedy.

And voters will long remember and Mitt will long regret his bet that reminded everyone of a candidate who seems rich, elite, and out of touch.

I was in the Indian restaurant on Saturday reading my lunch book – I am just starting Arthur Brooks’ “The Battle: How the Fight between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America’s Future “. I was surprised to see that Newt Gingrich gave the foreword to the book, and it was really very conservative. (Here’s a paraphrase of his foreword). Newt is not my candidate, but if he’s the nominee, I’ll support him. I am still hoping that Michele Bachmann or Rick Santorum can win in Iowa.

UPDATE: Watch the full debate here.