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

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/02/25/rick-santorums-despicable-and-hurtful-health-care-lie/

With the Republican presidential nomination still up in the air, the possibility of a brokered convention is looking increasingly likely. Under the party’s rules, the delegates won by Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and the others in the primaries and caucuses are obligated to vote for their assigned candidate only on the first ballot. If no candidate wins the required number of votes, the delegates can throw their support to anyone. There’s speculation that party insiders, unhappy with the current field, might float the candidacy of someone not now in the race, like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie or Jeb Bush.

While Christie and Bush might be fine candidates, perhaps the Republicans should consider a more inspired and game-changing pick: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Oh goodie! Let's have a candidate for President who has never been elected to public office, who is notorious for his reluctance to speak in public, and who failed to disclose about half a million dollars of payments to his wife from a right wing think tank. As Adam Winkler says, this 'just makes good sense'.

wait was that article real?

The article was meant to be taken seriously, but it appears to be little more than a desperate attempt by the writer to avoid cranking out a stupidly derivative column, which attempt ended up being highly original, but pathetically moronic.

LOL - Clarence Thomas is known as a recluse even AMONG his fellow Justices... not a group of people who tend to get out much.

He'd probably start doing his weekly addresses over the radio, guy's obsesessed with "old-timey" stuff... Or he'd have scroll closed with the presidential seal (in red wax) that is sent to the press secretary, who then reads the statement over the radio

...And its just a concurrence of whatever the Speaker of the House said that week.

He'd probably start doing his weekly addresses over the radio, guy's obsesessed with "old-timey" stuff...

I'll ask my abuela whether her husband put pubes in her Pepsi.

Then again, most people thought an inexperienced African-American often mistaken for a Muslim could never defeat presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton, much less be elected president.

"often mistaken for a muslim" such wit tina brown sure knows how to pick em!

from the same website: "mitt romney knows what he's doing" by lee siegel

so that guy is a ucla law profesor

You all remember our pal, Mr. Mitt Everyman Romney, right?

He also took a detour to the Daytona 500 in Florida, where he talked with fans. Asked by The Associated Press if he follows the sport, Romney said, "Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans, but I have some great friends that are NASCAR team owners."

"I don't follow the sport, but I do know the millionaires who run things."

hunting? well no, but I do own many forests

at this point i think mittpaws may be trolling

After the Oscars, Tuesday night better deliver.

Oh my godddddd this guy is amazing. It's like he's building his entire campaign around the "John McCain owns a lot of houses" trope, because he can't actually register that most people read that as a negative.

"i don't actually know anyone who has had cancer, but i know some people who own factories that emit substances that cause cancer. so i feel your pain, you know?"

"This combines a couple of things I like best, cars and sports," Romney told the group. "I appreciate the spirit of the men and women that are driving today. This is a chance to really look at some of the determination and great qualities of the human spirit. This is quintessentially American. I love what you're doing, happy to be here today, wish you all the very best and God bless this great nation of ours."

who among us doesn't like nascar?

"This combines a couple of things I like liquor, women, and hip-hop," Romney told the group. "I appreciate the spirit of the men and women that are driving today. This is a chance to really look at some of the determination and great qualities of the human spirit. This is quintessentially American. I love what you're doing, happy to be here today, wish you all the very best and God bless this great nation of ours."

lol. he's so clumsy and tin-eared about trying to show he believes in american exceptionalism

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2012-02/68402151.jpg

photographer should've waited til it'd gone around the dirt track a couple of times

I love NASCAR, all the owners and drivers, especially the drivers--they're just the right height. And not just the great drivers, but all the little inland drivers, I love them, too.

Romney, even with coaching, has absolutely NO ability to NOT come off as Richie Rich, does he?

Haven't looked up thread closely to see if you discussed these latest Santorum quotes:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/santorum-presses-culture-wars-attack/2012/02/26/gIQAqSkicR_story.html

“President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob,” said the former senator from Pennsylvania. “There are good, decent men and women who go out and work hard every day and put their skills to test that aren’t taught by some liberal college professor to try to indoctrinate them. Oh, I understand why he wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image.”

Asked Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” how his faith fits in with his ideas about governing, Santorum said he disagreed with the “absolute separation” between church and state outlined by Kennedy in a 1960 speech.

Santorum said reading the speech made him want to “throw up.”

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” he said. “The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.”

man I'd be really riled up about Rick Santorum if it weren't for the fact that the U.S. will never, ever elect him President.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlWeVY64TpU

loooolllllll

that romney pic

fully expect the crowd to start booing him and he's all "what? Is whacking day over now?"

santorum is now getting secret service protection

no word on his code name yet

it's ironic that romney has such a hard time articulating american exceptionalism since his theology is so focused on america as a promised land. maybe that's why it's hard for him -- like he could make a strong case if he was allowed to bring in his personal beliefs, but bc he thinks mormonism is toxic politically he has to look for other reasons why america is exceptional.

i'm not a big student of romneyology, but idk what his deal is honestly! he seems like someone who doesn't even know what he's on about.

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2012/02/quote-of-the-day-february-27-2012.html

That's an amazing quote--Romney's real father pays tribute to Obama's spiritual father (along with William Ayers, of course).

it's ironic that romney has such a hard time articulating american exceptionalism

I was reading an article about Santorum's problems with this--the idea that he simultaneously believes in American exceptionalism yet is terrified that America is being destroyed by liberal morals, Satan, secularism, etc.

romney's problem isn't that mormonism is politically toxic, his problem is that he actually is mormon. his 'almost normal...but...off' just reminds me of every other mormon I've known.

snob Santorum in 2006 (from tpm):

“In addition to Rick’s support of ensuring that primary and secondary schools in Pennsylvania are equipped for success, he is equally committed to ensuring the every Pennsylvanian has access to higher education,” the site reads

It's almost humorous how the Republicans are conceding some of their key issues by nominating Romney. Health care notwithstanding.

Obama pals with Ayers? How about Saul Alinsky's praise of the Romney brand! Did you know that Obama denies he's a Muslim? How about Romney truly believing that Jesus visited the Mayans? Did you know Obama's dad came from Kenya? Here, how about a flock of Romneys still living in Mexico and speaking Spanish to our cameras!

None of these should be issues in the first place, but its Romney's supposed supporters who brought them up four years ago.

the idea that he simultaneously believes in American exceptionalism yet is terrified that America is being destroyed by liberal morals, Satan, secularism, etc.

I don't think those are mutually exclusive at all - America is an exceptional country under attack from internal threats. Basically every scapegoating nationalist in history has believed this.

Once Santorum starts suggesting that wealthy liberal Jews in New York and Hollywood are holding back economic recovery he will have truly attained the mantle of the scapegoating nationalist.

the idea that he simultaneously believes in American exceptionalism yet is terrified that America is being destroyed by liberal morals, Satan, secularism, etc.

I don't think those are mutually exclusive at all - America is an exceptional country under attack from internal threats. Basically every scapegoating nationalist in history has believed this.

Yeah the thing is there are some worldviews the GOP narrative owns and some that they successfully project onto their opponents. This projection is a pretty important tactic, and the fear-mongering it entails can seem contradictory to those outside the Us vs. Them bubble.

Sometimes it simply entails finding the most radical left wing ideas and amplifying them. In 2008 I swear I heard "Obama is the new messiah" WAY more from right wingers than left wingers.

You don't say?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/02/27/rick-santorum-and-the-anti-kitten-burning-coalition/

This delusion gives their lives meaning and purpose. It makes their lives more exciting. And it enables them to bask in the idea that they are good and righteous people — or at least the possibility that they are better than some imagined faction of monstrously cruel other people.

This delusion has become a central defining trait of American politics. Imaginary monsters — other people who are imagined to favor kitten-burning or other monstrous cruelties — are a greater focus of American politics than jobs, taxes, highways and bridges, or environmental protection. Millions of votes are mobilized and cast based on the imaginary fear of an imaginary faction of kitten-burning monsters.

giving us actual, accredited Kittenburners a bad name.

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” he said. “The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.”

Keep in mind that the church he is implicitly referring to is... the Catholic church. We'll see how that plays in the long term.

f'ckin papists

haha yeah if he weren't running against someone in an even crazier cult his catholicism would be 'an issue'

perhaps the constant strain of mentally squaring the explicitly protestant exceptional-american mythos with radical falangist catholicism is what makes santorum so bad tempered