Rick Santorum Announces Presidential Run

[TMC]

I almost feel sorry for Santorum. The past several cycles, the GOP runner-up was consider the leader, or at least a very strong contender, in the next round. How many people even remember that Santorum was the runner-up to Romney?

But I say “almost,” because he is frankly a terrible candidate. He got crushed in his own state in his last real election. He doesn’t appear to have a signature issue or a remarkable skill set (at least as far as I know). I suppose all that could change, but I haven’t seen anything to suggest it will.

 

[ishii]

In such a crowded field it might take even less to win Iowa than it did in 2012. But if your implication is the likes of Santorum, Perry, Huckabee would not appeal to enough voters in a general election, I would have a tendency to agree.

We’ve got to stop agreeing like this.

 

[Path_Finder]

This is akin a sequel to a bad movie that nobody really liked in the first place. Does anyone *really *want to watch Grown-Ups 2? Did the world *really *need Hot Tub Time Machine 2? Will anyone *really *vote for Rick Santorum?

Yes, there was a vote here a few months ago and Santorum did very well.

 

[Path_Finder]

As far as I’m concerned a real conservative like Walker or Cruz will do as Reagan did and win convincingly. Rubio is alright.

 

[Sy_Noe]

Yes, there was a vote here a few months ago and Santorum did very well.

Yes but do only voters of a CAF Republican or conservative ilk decide Presidential general elections?

 

[Sy_Noe]

We’ve got to stop agreeing like this.

I don’t know whether to say it was a start toward bipartisanship or whether miracles will ever cease. Peace Ishii.

 

[CNA_News]

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/i..._Flickr_CC_BY_SA_20_CNA_5_28_15.jpgPittsburgh, Pa., May 28, 2015 / 03:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Second-time presidential candidate Rick Santorum announced his campaign for the U.S. presidency on Wednesday, standing behind his goals to shrink the government, heal the middle class, and focus on social issues, while honing in on his image as a “blue collar conservative.”

“I am proud to stand here among you and for you, the American workers who have sacrificed so much, to announce that I am running for president of the United States,” Santorum stated May 27 in his home state of Pennsylvania.

Santorum will try to appeal to Catholic voters in the 2016 race, although he is among two other Republican contenders with a Catholic affiliation - Jeb Bush, a convert from Episcopalianism, and Marco Rubio.

Santorum’s 2012 campaign for president bolstered his transparency on faith, revealing his belief that God and the importance of religion are pivotal in American democracy. The former U.S. Senator has made it clear over the years that he is devoted to his faith, and that the Church has helped shape some of his political stances.

“I am proud of being Catholic. I’m proud of the teachings of the Church,” Santorum told CNA in 2011, upholding the belief that faith and reason go hand in hand.

“When the reason is right and the faith is true, they end up in the same place,” Santorum continued.
The New York Times called Santorum the “boldest candidate in the race” because of his stance opposing abortion and same-sex marriage, making him stand apart from what could be a dozen republican runners.

During his two terms as a U.S. Senator, Santorum worked resolutely to ban partial-birth abortion and continues to oppose the practice. He also told CNA that the “faith teaches very clearly that life is life at the moment of conception.”

Santorum also defended religious-based organizations and helped them receive more assistance during his time as a senator in the 1996 welfare overhaul. He has also spoken out against homosexual acts and supports marriage between one man and one woman, publicly supporting the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996.

Although Santorum admitted on NBC earlier in the year that he had spoken rashly about some sensitive issues during his 2012 campaign, but he is still resolved to speak openly about the importance of family and traditional values.

The former senator, age 57, joins an already crowded race, but his history of winning 11 states against Mitt Romney in the 2012 Republican primaries could prove helpful in the continuously brimming bids.

Although recent polls place him 10th among his fellow Republicans, Santorum will work to make his way towards the early debates in August, pushing his themes of restoring traditional American values and defence against the country’s enemies.

Santorum spoke boldly this week about the impending threat of radical Islam, saying he has been dubbed as an enemy by the Islamic State in one of their English-language magazines. Nevertheless, Santorum believes America should be wary of the brewing storm that extremist Islam may pose.

Other candidates for the Republican nomination include former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Texas senator Ted Cruz, and Ben Carson, a retired surgeon.

feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/catholicnewsagency/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/catholicnewsagency/dailynews/~4/x7qAhyalVj0

Full article…

 

[Casilda]

I predict he will do well in the first primaries, then quit like he did before. He should have stayed in the race, giving a chance for me to vote for him in my state’s late primary. I think all states should hold their primaries on the same day, give the candidates a fair chance.

 

[Path_Finder]

I predict he will do well in the first primaries, then quit like he did before. He should have stayed in the race, giving a chance for me to vote for him in my state’s late primary. I think all states should hold their primaries on the same day, give the candidates a fair chance.

We will see, at the least, he did spark my interest in his background and politics a few years ago. I’d largely given up following politics closely.

 

[SuperLuigi]

Easiest to defeat: Huckabee/Ben Carson/Ted Cruz/Santorum

Most moderate who I can see being best for country: Rubio/Romney/to some degree Rand Paul

Can’t wait for the entertaining debates.

Actually, Gov. Huckabee is running strong against Hillary in some polls. His problem is holding ground in the primary.

And what would happen if Carson/Cruz split the Hispanic and Asian vote and/or got a third of the votes in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philly, Minneapolis or Chicago?

Obama/Biden needed 72% or more votes from all those groups, plus strong majorities of Jews and single women, just to barely clear 51%. Some analysis shows that 3-4 million GOP voters sat at home.

 

[SeannyM]

Actually, Gov. Huckabee is running strong against Hillary in some polls. His problem is holding ground in the primary.

And what would happen if Carson/Cruz split the Hispanic and Asian vote and/or got a third of the votes in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philly, Minneapolis or Chicago?

Obama/Biden needed 72% or more votes from all those groups, plus strong majorities of Jews and single women, just to barely clear 51%. Some analysis shows that 3-4 million GOP voters sat at home.

He ate his foot with his comments about a president being able to ignore the Supreme Court. Then he said that all three branches have to agree on a ruling for it to be enforceable… He doesn’t seem to know very much about the government he hopes to lead.

 

[Sy_Noe]

Actually, Gov. Huckabee is running strong against Hillary in some polls. His problem is holding ground in the primary.

And what would happen if Carson/Cruz split the Hispanic and Asian vote and/or got a third of the votes in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philly, Minneapolis or Chicago?

Obama/Biden needed 72% or more votes from all those groups, plus strong majorities of Jews and single women, just to barely clear 51%. Some analysis shows that 3-4 million GOP voters sat at home.

Detroit, Milwaukee, Philly, Minneapolis, Chicago? What on earth does that mean? I’m not sure what you are implying. But you did say “those groups”. So just by some long shot chance if what you mean are that inner city African American voters are going to vote for an ultra conservative neurosurgeon in a general election just because of his race or Latino voters will vote for Cruz just because of his or his last name and not consider their positions on issues, I give voters in “those groups” a bit more credit than than that. Jews and single women too.

 

[CaptFun]

video.foxnews.com/v/4263491965001/rick-santorum-sounds-off-on-iraq-crisis-immigration/?#sp=show-clips < video

Rick Santorum sounds off on Iraq crisis, immigration
May. 28, 2015 - 3:32 - Republican presidential candidate discusses 2016 plans on ‘The Kelly File’

An instructive look at the candidate, especially for those who have only heard him field the MSMs questions about birth control, gay rights, abortion for rape victims and other queries that by themselves paint Santorum as “just a social conservative” or a doctrinaire Catholic.

 

[ishii]

I don’t know whether to say it was a start toward bipartisanship or whether miracles will ever cease. Peace Ishii.

Ha. Let’s hope its bipartisanship.

 

[ishii]

Actually, Gov. Huckabee is running strong against Hillary in some polls. His problem is holding ground in the primary.

And what would happen if Carson/Cruz split the Hispanic and Asian vote and/or got a third of the votes in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philly, Minneapolis or Chicago?

Obama/Biden needed 72% or more votes from all those groups, plus strong majorities of Jews and single women, just to barely clear 51%. Some analysis shows that 3-4 million GOP voters sat at home.

I read that for every white voter the GOP gets, the Democrats need something like three Hispanic voters to overcome. Or some such. Of course the best bet is for the GOP to gain a larger share of Hispanic voters.

Ishii

 

[ishii]

He ate his foot with his comments about a president being able to ignore the Supreme Court. Then he said that all three branches have to agree on a ruling for it to be enforceable… He doesn’t seem to know very much about the government he hopes to lead.

I watched an interview of Huckabee on the Chris Wallace Fox News Sunday show (that right wing pro-Republican network). Huckabee came across as very ignorant of the constitution and to me he would be a very bad candidate who would probably lose in a landslide, while appealing to all the evangelicals. Unfortunately the country is not made up of all evangelicals. (fortunately?). Same for Santorum and even Jindal who has spoken out against evolution, e.g.

Ishii

 

[Sy_Noe]

I read that for every white voter the GOP gets, the Democrats need something like three Hispanic voters to overcome. Or some such. Of course the best bet is for the GOP to gain a larger share of Hispanic voters.

Ishii

But how do they do that when nearly the entire Republican Party opposes the Latino vote on an issue so near and dear to their hearts? Maybe Jeb backs a pathway to citizenship. I don’t know. I only know you have said Jeb favors “amnesty” as you like to call Obama’s pathway to citizenship. Hillary has said she would even go further than Obama. And yes I know Rubio at one time was for a bipartisan immigration bill before he was against it. So how many candidates who actually have a chance to win the party’s nomination in this ever growing field, now support the bipartisan bill that Marco once supported? If I were a Republican I’d be starting to fear that beyond older Cubans, you could be losing the Latin vote for a lifetime with the way things are going.

 

[ishii]

But how do they do that when nearly the entire Republican Party opposes the Latino vote on an issue so near and dear to their hearts? Maybe Jeb backs a pathway to citizenship. I don’t know. I only know you have said Jeb favors “amnesty” as you like to call Obama’s pathway to citizenship. Hillary has said she would even go further than Obama. And yes I know Rubio at one time was for a bipartisan immigration bill before he was against it. So how many candidates who actually have a chance to win the party’s nomination in this ever growing field, now support the bipartisan bill that Marco once supported? If I were a Republican I’d be starting to fear that beyond older Cubans, you could be losing the Latin vote for a lifetime with the way things are going.

Well you seem to be assuming that all Hispanics in America are for amnesty, and/or will not react positively to a thoughtful explanation (by a Rubio or other candidate) of a non-amnesty plan which secures the borders first then deals the the illegal aliens. Certainly the Democrats are trying to win the Latino vote for generations with their support for amnesty, and no doubt they see the Latino’s who are newly legalized by amnesty as fresh new recipients of entitlements and thus new Democrat voters. Maybe you’re fine with that type of crass political scheme, I’m not.

The Republicans don’t need huge numbers of Latinos - just a few percentage points more. I think they have a chance to do so with a Rubio candidacy.

Ishii

 

[Sy_Noe]

Well you seem to be assuming that all Hispanics in America are for amnesty, and/or will not react positively to a thoughtful explanation (by a Rubio or other candidate) of a non-amnesty plan which secures the borders first then deals the the illegal aliens. Certainly the Democrats are trying to win the Latino vote for generations with their support for amnesty, and no doubt they see the Latino’s who are newly legalized by amnesty as fresh new recipients of entitlements and thus new Democrat voters. Maybe you’re fine with that type of crass political scheme, I’m not.

The Republicans don’t need huge numbers of Latinos - just a few percentage points more. I think they have a chance to do so with a Rubio candidacy.

Ishii

Just to be clear no one said a thing about all Hispanics. Just as neither do all African Americans vote a certain way. Nor do all white men vote Republican. Yours truly a prime example.

 

[ishii]

Just to be clear no one said a thing about all Hispanics. Just as neither do all African Americans vote a certain way. Nor do all white men vote Republican. Yours truly a prime example.

Fine - forget about Hispanic, substitute Latino instead. Not all Latinos vote the same or believe the same on this issues, including immigration.

Ishii