Santorum 2012 - Who is kidding now!

Hoisted from the Archives:

Santorum 2012 – You Got to be Kidding Me?

Not really. Yes I know he’s hardcore into extreme right wing ideology, but it’s a possibility.

And if so expect a Crusade of Holiness from Rick Santorum:

How can he, having lost his last election, run for president? Isn't he a spent political force? Well, was Richard Nixon defunct after losing the California gubernatorial race in 1962?

Santorum has made nine trips to New Hampshire, where he has hired a chairman of his state political action committee and a state director, and is returning soon. He has been that many times to two other early delegate-selection states, Iowa and South Carolina, and has other trips to those states scheduled.

……. for three hours every Friday he hosts William Bennett's nationally syndicated radio program, which also has a mostly conservative audience.

Santorum does not ignore economic issues, but as a relentless ethicist, he recasts those as moral issues: "What is European socialism but modern-day monarchy that 'takes care' of the people?" He is, of course, correct that America's debt crisis is, at bottom, symptomatic of a failure of self-control, a fundamental moral failing.

The first event of the nominating process, Iowa's Republican caucuses, are, Santorum says, a bifurcated event. One part concerns born-again and evangelical Christians, who are 60 percent of caucus participants. The other part involves everyone else. This is why Mike Huckabee won Iowa in 2008 and why in 1988 Pat Robertson finished a strong second to Bob Dole and ahead of George H.W. Bush.…………… If unemployment is still above 9 percent in 2012, almost any Republican can win, and if there is a convincing recovery the party had better nominate someone who can energize its base.

That is only a theory, but this is a fact: Social conservatives are much of that base, are feeling neglected and are looking for someone like Santorum.

George Will – Lamestream Media figure and Global Warming Denialist.

Actually, this is not so far off the mark.

Pointy-headed over educated political scientists with fancy degrees from coastal universities have noticed a pattern in electoral politics that may come into play here. Simply put there is a tendency for a party to pick a true believer when it has only been out of the Whitehouse for a short period of time. In this case 4 years. After eight or more years, the party preferences moderate toward a practical pick more toward the center. This doesn’t always happen, but the egg heads tell us there is more of a probability that the GOP will nominate someone from the far right as their Presidential Candidate. And if the base gets its say, why not Rick Santorum.

Sure he’s borderline crazy – but in this case it may work for him. I know its counterintuitive.

Who knows what will happen today. It Could be Santorum Mania.