Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
From his column today on the advantages Santorum has over earlier not-Romneys.
Unlike Perry, Santorum is articulate. Unlike Cain, he has political experience and knowledge of public policy. Unlike Gingrich, he has a personal life that seems to be above reproach. Romney has no advantage over Santorum in any of these respects.
And that's not yet to mention the advantages Santorum has in terms of policy substance.
Has anyone noticed the polls in Michigan?
And here's David Catron over at American Spectator, urging Gingrich to "do the honorable thing."
"Santorum is, in fact, the only GOP contender left who constitutes a genuinely conservative alternative to a president whose statist vision of America's future will transform us into a European-style social democracy."
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Comments:
Mar '11
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
He's going to get pounded on his less than completely conservative positions (Specter, debt ceiling votes, etc.), but Ronald Reagan increased state spending by over 150% while governor of California and signed legislation that led to the first national air emission standards.
It's time to take the position that the perfect should not be made the enemy of the good, and start focusing on the underlying governing philosophy of the candidate. Rick Santorum, to my mind, passes that smell test.
Dec '10
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
What Illiniguy said. Romney's supporters have been arguing fervently about not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good for a while now; I don't think this is what they had in mind, but it works for me.
Mar '11
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
Right now, my vote is Santorum's to lose. We'll see how he does going forward, but I definitely want him going forward.
May '10
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
I worry that Senator Santorum will be a polarizing figure as the nominee and that our country will be unable to solve its fiscal challenges if we choose this moment to have a knock-down, drag-out on social issues. And I fear that's what it will become, because the president and the media will be happy to distract the electorate from fiscal issues. So the fall election will be a referendum on gay rights and the nation will become even more polarized than it is today.
Mar '11
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
Who's more polarizing than Obama? If now isn't the time for a knockdown, drag out fight over principle, when will be that time? I'm sick of backing down from a fight simply because it would be "unseemly". Bright lines make for clear choices, now is the time.
May '10
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
Illiniguy
Who's more polarizing than Obama? If now isn't the time for a knockdown, drag out fight over principle, when will be that time? I'm sick of backing down from a fight simply because it would be "unseemly". Bright lines make for clear choices, now is the time. · 3 minutes ago
It's not that simple. There are principles regarding the proper role of government in our lives -- which I think are uniting if you can be heard above the noise. And then there are principles about how to live our lives, which I think are divisive. Look at all the 100+ comment discussions on this site and you see they typically center around religion, homosexuality and abortion... and we are all in basic agreement. I think a campaign that is about the parsing of gay rights and the definition of marriage is a loss for the country right now. That is, as they say in my business, a bull market problem.
Apr '11
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
No he's not.
Nov '11
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
There's a certain percentage of the Republican electorate, and a sizable percentage of the general electorate, who either self identify as libertarians or (more numerously) who have libertarian leanings.
They have other options this election, and if Santorum is the nominee, they will avail themselves of those other options.
Include me among them. In fact, I'll change my party registration if Santorum is the nominee.
Mar '11
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
Fred Cole: There's a certain percentage of the Republican electorate, and a sizable percentage of the general electorate, who either self identify as libertarians or (more numerously) who have libertarian leanings.
They have other options this election, and if Santorum is the nominee, they will avail themselves of those other options.
Include me among them. In fact, I'll change my party registration if Santorum is the nominee. · 10 minutes ago
I'm truly curious to hear your reasons.
Sep '10
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
Fred Cole:
They have other options this election
Like Obama?
May '10
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
Illiniguy
Fred Cole: There's a certain percentage of the Republican electorate, and a sizable percentage of the general electorate, who either self identify as libertarians or (more numerously) who have libertarian leanings.
They have other options this election, and if Santorum is the nominee, they will avail themselves of those other options.
Include me among them. In fact, I'll change my party registration if Santorum is the nominee. · 10 minutes ago
I'm truly curious to hear your reasons. · 1 minute ago
...Aaaaaannd here we go.
May '10
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
Fred Cole: There's a certain percentage of the Republican electorate, and a sizable percentage of the general electorate, who either self identify as libertarians or (more numerously) who have libertarian leanings.
They have other options this election, and if Santorum is the nominee, they will avail themselves of those other options.
Include me among them. In fact, I'll change my party registration if Santorum is the nominee. · 20 minutes ago
How about if Gingrich or Romney is the nominee? Are they more more libertarian than Santorum?
Mar '11
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
I count myself as a pretty Libertarian sort of guy, but I also understand politics as the art of the possible. If Santorum is the nominee, and folks like you sit out the election, then we all lose. There will only be 2 options in November, like it or not.
Jun '10
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
This is like Romney and Romney-care to have to point this out: Santorum can't even get elected to the senate in his own state. This is a losing idea. Come on people.
Romney is far far more electable and even he doesn't really stand a chance.
Give Santorum any cabinet post he wants -- I mean that -- anything. He will be stellar. He is a great man -- but he can't be elected president.
Mar '11
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
Katievs, when Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe, he is reputed to have said "So you're the little lady that started this great big war." What is it about your posts that they kick up such a hornet's nest of commentary?
Nov '11
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
Illiniguy
I'm truly curious
1. Santorum is openly a homophobe. (Sorry, but he is.) That in itself isn't enough of a deal breaker for most people. Jim DeMint is too, and that by itself might not disqualify DeMint for me. It's just extremely distasteful to me.
2. The difference is at least DeMint believes in limitedgovernment. Santorum is most certainly a socialconservative, but a big government social conservative. So call that one strike two.
3. Strike three is that he is anti-libertarian. He rejects the idea that people should be left alone. So he stands specifically directly opposite to what I believe in.
I don't require that people share my moral system or my values, even if it were offered to me, I would not have them imposed by force on others. And I don't want anyone else to impose their values on me.
The President of the United States sits atop an enormous federal administrative state, and army of millions of federal civilian workers, and commands the most power military on the Earth.
I don't want a man as president who thinks I have no right to privacy in my own home.
Nov '11
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
Two additional things:
1. You'll know he'll lose, right? He'll not only lose, but he'll lose big and he'll fracture the Republican party in the process.
2. I indeed do have a choice. I'll be voting for Gary Johnson. And don't give me that there-are-only-two-choices crap either.
I'm 32, I'd imagine most of you reading this are older than me. I remember Ross Perot, and if he hadn't dropped out and come back, he had a decent shot at the presidency.
If Santorum gets nominated people will start looking elsewhere and GJ may catch on fire. American presidential politics, anything can happen.
May '10
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
Why, that's one of the nicest things anyone ever said to me, illiniguy. I'm completely flattered. And on Valentine's Day too.
Mar '11
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
Fred: I'm not trying to pick a fight, I'm trying to engage in dialogue.
1. I don't believe he's homophobic. Just because he favors traditional marriage and doesn't think that gay issues rise to the level of the Civil Rights movement doesn't make him so.
2. The next President, if he's a Republican, is going to be (hopefully) reined in by a Republican and conservatively led Congress. Big government conservatism can be overcome by a Congress that takes its Article I role seriously.
3. See answer to Question 2, above.
4. I don't know that he'll lose. I think he'll create a clear distinction for Republicans to contemplate, and as such, I think that's a good thing.
5. If I thought Johnson wouldn't take away from the Republican's chances, I'd be tempted to join you.
You're old enough to remember Perot, but you aren't old enough to remember John Anderson, who kept Gerald Ford from beating Jimmy Carter in 1976. I've seen this movie before.
Finally, do you think Obama's mandates aren't intruding on the privacy of your home?
Nov '11
Re: Ramesh on Santorum: "He Won't Be So Easy To Dispatch"
Illiniguy:
You're old enough to remember Perot, but you aren't old enough to remember John Anderson, who kept Gerald Ford from beating Jimmy Carter in 1976. I've seen this movie before.
Oh, my friend, all I seek is dialogue.
Anderson ran in 1980 and I'll answer your remaining points after work.