Santorum Calls Upon Michigan Democrats to Help Him Defeat Romney
A report in The Detroit News reveals that the Santorum campaign paid for robocalls to Democrats asking them to vote for him in the Michigan open primary today. The campaign's communications director Hogan Gidley justified the robocalling strategy, explaining that, "We know that if we can get a Reagan Democrat in the primary, we can get them in the fall."
Mitt Romney is predictably upset about this maneuver, lambasting it as "a real effort to kidnap [the Republican] primary process."
And Democrats? Well, they seem to be thrilled. Earlier this month, the Daily Kos announced "Operation Hilarity," which calls for Democratic voters in states with open primaries and caucuses to vote for Rick Santorum whom they judge to be the weaker Republican standard bearer.
It's time for us to take an active role in the GOP nomination process. That's right, it's time for those of us who live in open primary and caucus states—Michigan, North Dakota, Vermont and Tennesseein the next three weeks—to head out and cast a vote for Rick Santorum.
Why would we do such a crazy thing? Lots of great reasons!
Republican turnout has sucked, and appears to be getting worse by the contest
Several of the contests have produced razor-thin margins of victory.
The longer this GOP primary drags on, the better the numbers for Team Blue.
The longer this thing drags out, the more unpopular the Republican presidential pretenders become.
[...]
And in any case, it's freaking hilarious. I mean, Rick Santorum? Really? The Republicans have offered up this big, slow, juicy softball. Let's have fun whacking the heck out of it.
I'm skeptical about the efficacy of such a hijacking scheme, but if you're on Team Santorum, I can see being delighted with the plan as you expectantly count down the days until this all blows up in the Democrats' faces as Rick Santorum lands in the White House. If, on the other hand, you're on Team Romney, you're understandably mortified by this development, as you watch the race take yet another turn toward the ugly.
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Comments:
Aug '11
Re: Santorum Calls Upon Michigan Democrats to Help Him Defeat Romney
Palaeologus
DrewInWisconsin
Recent Gallup polling says that Santorum has a better chance of beating Obama than Romney. Not sure whether that's an outlier, but it's worth noting. The idea that Romney has the best chance has never been solidly backed up by polling.
Yeah, you've been singing this tune a long time Drew.
The problem is that you are running out of bands.
Or is Herman Cain gonna appear for an encore?
No need to be nasty.
Aug '11
Re: Santorum Calls Upon Michigan Democrats to Help Him Defeat Romney
I just don't see why it's a big deal that Rick Santorum reached out to Democrats. As Kevin McCullough noted:
Jul '10
Re: Santorum Calls Upon Michigan Democrats to Help Him Defeat Romney
DrewInWisconsin
Palaeologus
DrewInWisconsin
Recent Gallup polling says that Santorum has a better chance of beating Obama than Romney. Not sure whether that's an outlier, but it's worth noting. The idea that Romney has the best chance has never been solidly backed up by polling.
Yeah, you've been singing this tune a long time Drew.
The problem is that you are running out of bands.
Or is Herman Cain gonna appear for an encore?
No need to be nasty. · 6 minutes ago
Right you are. I apologize.
I meant to be a smart aleck, not a jerkface.
But there are only so many candidates, and eventually, well, There can be only one.
Oct '10
Re: Santorum Calls Upon Michigan Democrats to Help Him Defeat Romney
Stuart Creque
Tristan Abbey
For most Americans:
Obama = inherited a recession and possibly prevented the Great Depression 2.0, definitely killed Osama, and did something with healthcare but who knows what exactly. He's also a cool guy. · 30 minutes ago
I'm detecting a shift: people who used to argue that Romney is the only one of the candidates who can beat Obama now seem to be arguing that we are going to lose no matter what, so we should nominate Romney to avoid being tainted by association with that wacko kook religious nut Santorum.
Are my spider-senses deceiving me? · 3 hours ago
I think I've been pretty consistent in my lack of enthusiasm for Romney. He's the least bad of all the candidates, but that is not a good thing. Mitt Romney is our John Kerry, and I think the result will be the same: a lost election that should have been winnable.
Oct '10
Re: Santorum Calls Upon Michigan Democrats to Help Him Defeat Romney
I do think we can pick up the Senate, though. And with control of Congress, we can block judicial nominees, apply pressure to federal regulators, continue to cut the deficit, reform the tax code, and hopefully lots of other things (Obama will go along on deficit reduction and growth measures--I'm convinced our foreign creditors will apply too much pressure behind the scenes for him to do otherwise).