Am I the only one who now believes that Santorum is *deliberately* trying to lose?

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

The irresponsible and outrageous shit that has come out of his mouth in just he past two or three days leads me to believe that he's doing this on purpose.

There's no way in hell that he thinks he's doing the politically smart thing here.

[yellerpup]

1. I don't think it's limited to Santorum.

Seems as if the Republicons are trying to throw this election. They have no solutions on the issues so they're going back to that 1/3 of the R primary voters who are conservative to an insane degree and will respond to dog-whistle social issues.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

3. THEY ARE ALL INSANE IN ONE WAY OR THE OTHER

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

5. I agree with you, but it doesn't make sense. The more he talks, the more his numbers

are starting to decline in MI and AZ. Either he's majorly stupid (which may be the case anyway), or someone has gotten to him and he is deliberately throwing these two primary states to Romney in exchange for something. (VP consideration, perhaps?)

[yellerpup]

24. I can't begin to fathom

how his mind works. He seems sick and obsessed to me. If he isn't throwing it deliberately then he is either completely tone deaf or has his fingers in his ears going la-la-la-la.

[liberal N proud]

2. I think he or they believe what they say

I don't think they have any idea of how insane they sound.

[n2doc]

4. Not ready for prime time is what comes to mind

It seems like all of them, once the spotlight is on, feel this burning need to go medieval on all of us.

[babylonsister]

22. I think that's accurate; tone deaf, too. nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Icky Ricky is a True Believer. He's not trying to lose.

He really believes the, er, santorum he's selling, and it has never occurred to him that anything he's said is at all extreme, irresponsible or weird. On the contrary: to him it's the Truth. He absolutely believes it. He is surrounded by people who believe as he does, and there are enough of them to give him some primary victories and possibly even beat Rmoney. He is not thinking in terms of what's politically smart - that doesn't matter to a fanatic.

[Jennicut]

7. I agree. He really believes the crap he spews forth.

Which makes him even scarier to me.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

9. However, there have been a few instances where Ricky has been caught

Last edited Wed Feb 22, 2012, 04:06 PM - Edit history (1)

lying or being hypocritical. Denying he said "black people," for instance. Accepting money for pork barrell projects and then screaming against spending. The story about him accepting public dollars from a district where he's not sending his kids to school but homeschooling them. Then there's the contradiction where his wife was able to make the painful "choice" not to carry their baby to term; or, living as an unmarried woman with an OB-GYN who performs abortions. Helping John Ensign during his adulterous affair. There's a long list of his hypocrisy and contradictory statements coming from this man.

[marsis]

8. I like Rickie

only because he is one of the few politicains that believes most everything he says. It's also why I could never vote for the man because he scares the crap out of me.

[grantcart]

10. Yes, I think he is trying to win the nomination.

He is trying to excite the crazy wing of the Republican Party. Romney has a 29% ceiling and if he can get more people out he will win.

Its not all as crazy as it seems.

When he said that Obama had a 'phony theology' it had nothing to do with Obama and everything to do with Romney.

I am surprised that the talking heads haven't commented on it but 'phony theology' is exactly what Evangelicals think of Mormonism.

It was a dog whistle by proxy.

Edited to add a lot of the crazy stuff about Satan was from a couple of years ago when he was trying to get a radio show audience developed.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

17. Wow! I hadn't thought of that. This is about out-crazying Romney. I get it, now.

And Mittens' numbers decline when he goes on the attack against Santorum specifically. It worked on Gingrich because Gingrich resorted to scorched earth politics in addition to being outspent. Gingrich is also disliked so much so that Romney's attacks worked. Santorum is not nearly as disliked as Gingrich or Romney himself, so Romney's attacks backfire. But Santorum on the attack may or may not work. I'm beginning to think that Santorum's attacks are backfiring because the more he talks, the more his numbers decline against Romney.

[grantcart]

19. It has a short shelf life but if he can take Romney out in Michigan he can start rebranding himself

and the Romney campaign is going to quickly run out of money. He is spending at 300% of donations and his campaign is supported by people that are largely maxed out.

Of course his PAC will continue to get big checks but it will be pretty embarassing for Mitt, even if he wins MI that his campaign is on life support on a cash basis while his PAC basically has to run everything else. If Mitt loses MI you have to wonder how much more fat fat cat money is going to come in.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

20. The money will be plentiful and will come in from Dick Armey, the KKKochs, and KKKarl Rove.

I agree, however. Mittens' own money will start to dry up.

And I'm thinking that barring some major foul up, Mittens will end up winning MI and AZ, but his performance will be so underwhelming that he'll still be in trouble.

It says a lot when such a weak field of candidates is giving Romney a hard time. That can't be good news for Mittens.

[grantcart]

25. That money will go to the PAC but as has been noted elsewhere Romney is seriously running out of

money for his campaign. He has an extremely high percentage of donors who have already maxed out.

They will continue to give but it will go to the PAC not Romney's campaign.

Romney could very soon end up with a PAC that continues to raise money and an official campaign fund that is broke.

I think his campaign spent something like 14 million in January and only took in 5

[appleannie1]

11. The man is obsessed with sex and control. He can't help himself.

[PlanetBev]

12. My God, I was just going to post the same thing

This guy is trying to throw his own nomination.

My guess, he lives in an bubble, convinced the majority of American are as insane as he is. Totally deluded.

[WI_DEM]

15. This isn't about the electorate as a whole, but about the GOP electorate

and so I don't think he's trying to throw anything. He is trying to be seen as the anti-Romney who is a flip flopper and not seen by the GOP electorate as a true conservative.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

18. Right, and I agree, but whatever he is doing isn't working. He is either tied or declining in the

MI and AZ polls now when he had a nice lead, at least in MI, only a few weeks ago. Romney has more money, so I understand that. But it just seems as though Santorum is saying things that become more and more bizarre, to the point that it is turning some on the right off and making them believe that Romney isn't so bad after all.

[LisaL]

27. He believes what he says.

To him its normal and right. No way do I think he is trying to lose.

[Mr.Turnip]

13. To some extent I think he's trying to set up a question at the debate about some of this stuff.

To which he can respond the way Gingrich did in South Carolina when asked about the open marriage thing.

The Republican base would LOVE that.

[WI_DEM]

14. No, I certainly think he's in it to win the nomination.

[RDANGELO]

16. He is trying to win the nomination.

His problem and the problem with the Republican party, is that the base of the party has moved so far to the right , that to go after them is to alienate the rest of the electorate. Something that the media does not bring up, is that the party is only about 30% of the electorate. Thirty percent of the electorate is independent. There are moderate independents, who in the past, might have been republicans. These people are now up for grabs.

[RZM]

21. I highly doubt it. He's a true believer

We have many true believers on this site too. One amusing thing about personal political beliefs is that everybody seems to think that not only are theirs superior, but that a majority of the rest of the population either agrees with them or wants to agree with them. Santorum probably honestly believes that a 'true conservative' (or at least true social conservative) can win. I think they also believe that not compromising on core principles can win people over out of respect. You see quite a lot of that right here on DU as well.

That's the dilemma of a true believer. If they were wiling to do whatever it took to win, they wouldn't be a true believer, now would they

[Douglas Carpenter]

23. he doesn't know that his crazy talk is not mainstream. He thinks he speaks for the silent majority

[LisaL]

26. It's perfectly normal to him.

He says what he believes.