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

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

what makes santorum so bad tempered

Maybe his sphincter's too tight...oh, wait...

I'm loving the Paul-secretly-working-for-Romney conspiracy theories: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/02/27/432664/ron-paul-never-attacked-romney/

read somewhere a little bee thinks ron's doing this all to get RAND a veep slot

my theory is that ron paul secretly believes that romney is a better human being than he is because he is very rich

paul worked out a deal where he supports romney if the mormons agree to never baptize his ancestors

xp: one wonders if 'mitt romney' were 'michael rosen' would paul would have a different impression of the man's wealth

there's a show about modern republicans right now on radio 4 if you're interested in hearing about this from the point of view of a guy who sounds like a waistcoated lepidopterist

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4

guy from the american enterprise institute says that demographic changes mean that the only way republicans can eke out narrow victories is by winning the working class white vote by massive margins

the 'volk' if you will

sorry

haha

yeah i guess i kind of knew that already but it is helpful to remember it as an explanation for pretty much everything these candidates say

he said that "a variety of cultural factors" have meant that wealthy people are actually less likely to vote republican now than in the past

Lots of stuff up about how Michigan is suddenly close again, with Santorum leading some polls. If Romney wins--he probably will--it'll be because of a huge margin in advance voting. That seems to have saved him a couple of times thus far; lots of people vote for him before they see him up close and/or he starts saying silly things as each primary nears.

Tracer: is the show Analysis?