2012 republican presidential nominee III: can romney get santorum out of his hair?

daniel larison on why the gop contest has turned out the way it has:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/2012/01/10/romneys-dreadful-inevitability-how-did-it-come-to-this/

The delusion that 2012 was supposed to represent “vindication” for the conservative movement helps explain why conservatives didn’t settle on a single candidate much earlier and stick with him. Because of the entirely unearned 2010 midterm victory, many conservatives seem to have concluded that 2008 was an aberration, and because of the slow recovery there has been overconfidence about Republican prospects in the fall.

That lowered the bar considerably as far as the quality of the presidential candidates was concerned. Some of these underqualified candidates joined the race in the belief that 2012 was bound to be a Republican victory, and for that reason they didn’t want to “waste” that victory on an insufficiently pure candidate such as Romney. Because of this, candidates had a much higher ideological standard to meet. Flawed and compromised candidates might have been all right back in 2007 at the nadir of the Bush era, but not now. As a result, none of the declared candidates with any of the necessary experience could measure up, and those that could measure up were woefully unprepared for the office.

The higher expectations of activists and pundits allowed the fantasy of additional candidates to linger for months and months (and it still hasn’t been snuffed out), which delayed the consolidation of the conservative vote behind one or two of the declared candidates. On the whole, the fantasy candidates put forward by pundits are just as underqualified as some of the flops, or they have just as much baggage as the flawed candidates, and their entry into the race would simply compound the problem that conservatives have, which is that they have too many choices and no way to reach consensus on any one of them. At the same time, Romney’s health care record was widely perceived as a major or possibly fatal liability for his candidacy, but when it came time for voters to register their views it evidently wasn’t nearly as damaging as almost everyone believed. Conservatives did not rally behind any one candidate to oppose Romney months ago because I think many of them expected Romney to falter or implode long before this, so they thought they had the luxury of time to choose from among the alternatives. Romney didn’t implode, and conservatives frittered away valuable time on various long-shot and incompetent candidates. Because they couldn’t really believe that Romney would ever prevail, most anti-Romney conservatives didn’t do what would have been required to stop him from winning the nomination.

ie. the wrong people thought it would be easy and the stronger people knew it would be hard. pretty perceptive imo

yeah that seems pretty otm

back in 2007 at the nadir of the Bush era

The nadir of the Bush era came during his last months in office, late 2008, when Lehmann Bros. collapsed, soon followed by AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, GM, and roughly $30 trillion vanished in a couple of months. It was a culmination, kind of like reaching the final circle of hell in the Inferno.

The pre-nadir of the Bush era when they were running to become candidates in 2008.

he means that 2007 was when the republican candidates for the 2008 election were getting started

ie. the wrong people thought it would be easy and the stronger people knew it would be hard. pretty perceptive imo

― goole, Wednesday, January 11, 2012 12:41 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah the other thing is imo the gops strongest candidates r prob siting on the sideline not wanting to run against an imcumbent, another case of smart people knowing this was gonna be harder than it looked

who even are 'the strongest candidates' tho? I feel like the gop's so deep in the crazyhole that there's
a. nobody that can appeal to the whole party
b. nobody that's gonna have a CV that's attractive both to the base and the public at large

I mean when christie is your ace in the hole...

any of their non-texan governors

Speaking of which, other than get elected, make speeches and look presentable, what has Senator Rubio actually accomplished in the past couple of years?

a. hasn't had a sex scandal

b. hasn't had a financial scandal

c. looks presentable oh wait

he has presumably helped block the appointment of communist judges and bureaucrats -- what else do you want?

who even are 'the strongest candidates' tho? I feel like the gop's so deep in the crazyhole that there's
a. nobody that can appeal to the whole party
b. nobody that's gonna have a CV that's attractive both to the base and the public at large

― iatee, Wednesday, January 11, 2012 1:05 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol yeah its sort of just an assumption that there must be someone better out there

and im not talking abt christie!

remember when 'the media' was talking about whether chris christie was 'too fat' to be president and whether it 'was ok' to talk about that anyway.

good times.

too big to fail

Yeah, that sounds about right. It looks like the Republicans for some reason thought "Hey, beating up your candidates for being not hewing to your principles looks like a blast! Why have we been letting the Democrats hog this fun?"

The problems being that a) principled is not a good look for Republicans and b) it's really not something they've been selecting for.

being

I think 'one of those other governors' woulda just been another pawlenty. I mean it depends who we're talking about obv, but I think the way the ideological lines are drawn today make it just impossible for someone to have their cake and eat it too (other than christie obv.)

is it just me but once christie decided to not run did he just pack on another 100 lbs?? at that event with romney last week he looked way bigger.

Look, there was an awful lot of nadir going around when Bush was in office - and some if it in Obama's term.

Speaking of which, other than get elected, make speeches and look presentable, what has Senator Rubio actually accomplished in the past couple of years?

Read last week's New Yorker story.

okay, so he's gotten elected, made speeches, looked presentable and read the New Yorker; what else?

(obama joke goes here)

Laughed hard enough to spit lemonade from his nose.

If that's a qualification then Gallagher would have long been dictator for life.

Listen, being a tolerably literate Florida Republican is an achievement.

okay, so he's gotten elected, made speeches, looked presentable and read the New Yorker; what else?

― Bam! Orgasm explosion in your facehole. (DJP), Wednesday, January 11, 2012 1:27 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol

Oh, look, Romney showed interest in marching at a gay rights parade in 2002.

innnnnnnnnnteresting (as Bugs Bunny wd say)

Parade-curious

"Should I march in the front or the back?"

That's not going to hurt him so much in a general election

It might hurt a little if he marched in front.

base enthusiasm matters

At first

xpost

base enthusiasm matters

So does reaching out to the youths and the Independants

Very hard to reach out to yutes when you're marching.

I decided agaisnt the 'tip enthusiasm matters, too'. Sorry

independants? well, he does speak french...

reaching around the youth is v important

more Santorum lolz:

In the tiny town of Riva del Garda in northern Italy, 83-year-old-Maria Malacarne Santorum keeps her family’s secrets—including those of her late husband’s cousin, Rick. In an exclusive interview with the Italian weekly magazine Oggi, Mrs. Santorum recalls fondly when Rick visited her in 1985 during his law internship in Florence, and when he came back again in 1986 and 1989. “He loved our culture and cuisine so much, he brought his wife-to-be, Karen, a massive cookbook of Italian recipes,” she said.

But the elder Santorum matriarch doesn’t understand why he has diverged so far from the family’s longtime political stance. “In Riva del Garda his grandfather Pietro and uncles were ‘red communists’ to the core,” writes Oggi journalist Giuseppe Fumagalli, likening the family to “Peppone” after a famous fictional Italian communist mayor who fought against an ultraconservative priest known as Don Cammillo and about which a popular television series is based. “But on the other side of the ocean, it’s like his family here doesn’t exist. Instead he draws crowds as the head of the ultraconservative faction of the Republican party, against divorce, gay marriage, abortion, and immigration.”

Those politics don’t play well in Riva del Garda, a community of ultraliberals. On the campaign trail, Santorum often touts his grandfather’s flight from Italy “to escape fascism,” but he has neglected to publicly mention their close ties with the Italian Communist Party. “Rick’s grandfather Pietro was a liberal man and he understood right away what was happening in Italy,” Mrs. Santorum told Oggi. “He was anti-fascist to the extreme, and the political climate in 1925 was stifling so he left for America. After a few years he returned to Italy with his wife and children, including Aldo, Rick’s father, who passed away late last year. It’s a shame he won’t have the joy to see his son’s success in his bid for the White House.” She goes on to explain how the family then became pillars of the Communist Party in Italy.

did we talk about chris christie basically telling a woman who heckled him to blow him

!

When did this happen?

Happened a few days ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NYAFM3Jv0s

"Blinded by my Barack-Obama-induced anger"--there for anyone who wants it.

my god he's like a balloon wearing a belt

fwiw I can't make out the offending line

"Somethin' may go down tonight, but it ain't gonna be jobs, sweetheart."