Rick Santorum surrounded by Press - image Salon.com
2012 GOP Presidential Candidate, Rick Santorum is now leading President Obama in the Rasmussen Daily Presidential-GOP match-up polling by 45 to 44%, while Romney has fallen to 43% versus Obama 47%. In addition, Public Policy Polling has has Santorum in 2nd place in the Colorado primary to be held on Tuesday, while he leads in both Missouri and Minnesota. One would, given the fact that it is early in the primary contest, and the Massachusetts Governor has three rivals in Santorum, Gingrich and Paul heading into Super Tuesday, one would think that the media push for one candidate, an early winner in Romney, be premature. This given the polling data, as well as the fact that the other candidates, specifically Gingrich and Santorum, have each won a primary or caucus to Romney’s three wins, two of which were anticipated early (Nevada and New Hampshire). In the Maine Caucus, which has had little to no attention, one would anticipate a Romney win as well, however, Ron Paul is favored to win as the Maine caucus began on Saturday with Nevada, but will not finish on the same day.(The Hill)
Yet Rick Santorum keeps hammering home the same message, “don’t count me out” – he is clearly able to articulate the contrast he presents to voters versus Romney. On the eve of the Nevada contest, it was brought home in the most ridiculous of manners by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who, covering the Romney victory speech, noted back and forth with the field reporter, that Romney’s teleprompter was in place. Although that may seem petty in the broader scheme of things, it is another point in the litany of “why Romney is just like Obama” and faces an uphill battle against a president who, by all polling data, especially Gallup, should not win a second turn. (The others being: Moderate, Massachusetts, Health Care and Romney’s “miss-speak” on the fate of the nation’s poor versus the middle class.
Meanwhile, the media, regardless of which way it leans is refusing to accept the fact that there are other candidates in the race that might win at all – and since it looks like the beginning of a Santorum surge, and Santorum is “squeaky clean” as one can be in politics – there are only two tactics left: Denial and Religion.
In a lively piece by the Los Angeles Times: entitled: “As Nevada counts, Republican candidates press on” which details Gingrich’s second place win, his press conference rather than traditional post-primary speech and a lampoon on Saturday Night Live. They also touched on the dust-up between Obama and the Catholic Church, the new ruling that insists the Church affiliates must provide insurance that covers contraceptives, which is against Catholic doctrine. Both Gingrich and Santorum are Catholics and both had different takes on the ruling, which inserts the Government into Religious institutions - Gingrich straight forward Catholic defender, while Santorum held to a more Constitutional viewpoint. Yet, in the pro-Romney piece, the Times speaks to Santorum as the candidate that is specifically courting the evangelical vote, noting that his appearances in Colorado focused solely on that Demographics in rallies, which is blatantly false. In addition, the AP released an article this morning specifically aimed at Santorum titled: “Santorum refuses to bow despite another loss”as if winning only one out of 5 contests held to date, and having the potential to a) best the President, and b) win multiple states between now and Super Tuesday, just weren’t on the table.
What is on the table is religion - the fact that the piece focused on one of several events Santorum had attended in Colorado on Saturday, a church service, while ignoring the Republican sponsored events such as a Lincoln Breakfast. In addition, it dismisses his win in Iowa completely and although one might reasonably assume Romney, who has the backing of the establishment GOP, the DNC (they would want to run against no other candidate), and of course, the media, it is the blatant disregard for the facts and the Presidential candidate, that is most evidenced by this on small AP article.
Super Tuesday on March 6th, will, in all likelihood, be the bellwether as to who stays in and who leaves the GOP nominating process – and it is far too early to call this a Romney dominated contest given the makeup and geography associated with the Super Tuesday States, it may well show multiple wins, by multiple candidates, and with a plethora of proportional delegate states (including Massachusetts), Ron Paul will continue to amass delegates – and may give Romney a headache in Virginia, where he bested him in the 2008 primary – Romney and Paul being the only two on the ballot.
What is healthy for the GOP is a continued process; this is basically due to several factors, including a full vetting of the candidates, and the media being forced to focus on the events. If one were to sign up for Google News alerts on all candidates, one would find that those alerts, which were in the hundreds two weeks ago, have dwindled to merely mentions – former presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, and Sarah Palin, former VP candidate, both had more news alerts this past weekend, despite two caucuses being held, than any of the candidates – no one more evident than Mitt Romney.
Therefore, one might want to pause before discounting Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney’s campaign is just beginning to wake up to the fact that Santorum should be next in line for hits from Mr. Negative, who’s staff begin to send out emails on Santorum(according to the LA Times article: “In a tacit acknowledgment of Santorum's potential to do well Tuesday, Romney's campaign attacked him in an email Sunday as a defender of congressional earmarks.”
However, Santorum, unlike other candidates in the race, has bested Romney in the Florida Debates, and has little that the Romney campaign can truthfully challenge. In fact, there are few if any Congressional Representatives and or Senators, who do not accept earmarks, and Governors, accept those earmarks – even Governors like Mitt Romney.
Therefore, before one counts out anyone, pick a candidate, either Gingrich, Santorum or Paul, and donate – to keep it going and if one is not a fan of the Massachusetts Governor, it’s a sense of gratification to donate to a campaign that can do well, is doing well, be it any of the aforementioned (in truth, Santorum is doing the best at this point and has the greatest potential, next to Ron Paul to actually defeat Mitt Romney and go on to defeat President Obama. This makes one wonder if, back in the early stages of the debate process, where Gingrich acknowledge his friendship and pride in Santorum, and later continued to promise to stop Mitt Romney, if he weren’t throwing himself on the proverbial sword, in an attempt to weaken Romney while Santorum rose in the polls. If this were the case (speculation only), it would explain a lot.
Rick Santorum, Catholic, and Italian American – would be the first Catholic-Italian American President of the United States, just imagine the field day the press would have with that one – and the pride that Italian Americans’ would feel in being able to cast their votes for the first time for one of their own. Of note: there are 70 million Catholic voters, most of which tend to vote Democrat as they are blue collar (if the nation still had a blue collar workforce), and that is Rick Santorum’s bailiwick. That should give pause to any contender, be they GOP or the President.
According to the latest U.S. census Italian Americans’ are third in overall population with those of Irish decent in 2nd, and those of Germanic Decent being the largest group.
Therefore, one has to use the old adage, which may not be terribly politically correct but true non-the-less: “It ain’t over until the fat lady sings” and she hasn’t even begun a tune at this stage.
To donate to the Santorum Campaign visit: www.ricksantorum.com - although money can’t buy love, it can buy airtime.
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