Considering what a long shot he was to win, I think he’s doing great. I don’t think he’s trying to lose; I think he’s banking on people’s prejudices when they’re alone in the voting booth. The thing he said in Puerto Rico wasn’t trying to win Puerto Rico; it was to win red states. It’s almost working.
Not IN Puerto Rico. We use English to deal with Fed and Interstate matters but our public schools and local government/courts are in Spanish with ESL if/as needed, and legally right now this could continue under statehood.
The thing is, he can’t win if he only wins red states, even if he wins them overwhelmingly.
Part of it’s vision. Don’t discount the fact that Santorum appears to really believe that much of what he’s saying is true.
But there’s some realistic political appraisal there as well. Santorum’s probably figuring that Romney will be the Republican nominee and will lose to Obama. And he’s probably figuring that the voters will be looking for a change by 2016 - the last time a party won the Presidency for a third time in a row was 1988 and before that it was 1944.
So in 2016, Santorum is thinking that the losses of McCain and Romney will have discredited the relatively moderate wing of the Republican party. The conservatives will say “We gave you guys a chance and look what happened? If we act like fake Democrats, the voters elect a real Democrat. We need to go back to being real conservatives again.”
And Santorum will now be perfectly positioned to say he’s the real conservative alternative. He can point to his record to show he’s been a real conservative. And he can point to all the delegates he’s getting to show he has a broad base. Every other conservative candidate will be playing catch-up to him.
Then when he gets the nomination, he’ll run a “it’s time for a change” campaign against whoever the Democratic nominee is.
Users of porn ARE a big Republican voting bloc. And a big Democratic voting bloc. And an American Nazi party voting bloc. And a Prohibition party voting bloc.
I think you see where I’m going here.
Rule 34?
1940, actually. 1944 was fourth time in a row.
Maybe. But unless he believes there is a majority as nutty as he is, one wonders how he would manage to swing towards the center in the general election. It will be hard enough for Romney and he has a record as a centrist, one his it trying to deny, of course.
However saying absolutely stupid things is not necessarily a sign of loyalty to the right wing line. Here he was lying, which happens all the time to appeal to the electorate, except he was lying in a way guaranteed to turn of the electorate. English as the official language is not that big a deal right now, if you want to appeal to bigots you use immigration. However some Republicans have woken up to the fact that they had better figure out how to appeal to Latinos or else. They are going to try the economy, according to the Times, but this isn’t helping.
I think that Santorum is so extreme, and speaks to only those who back him up, that he really can’t see that true Americans can disagree with him.
Your bunk?
He’d rather be right than be president 
FAAAAAAAR right.
There’s a difference between being a conservative and voting for a conservative. Keep in mind not everyone votes on the basis of political ideology. They vote based on “character” or “to send a message”.
Nah. The only way a guy like Santorum gets into power is by a putsch, and I doubt he could bring that off.
Let’s face it: the guy is angling for a TV contract. Sad, but most likely true.
You know, I loathe the man with the fire of a thousand suns, but I don’t think he’s “angling” for anything (although he may well get it regardless). I believe that he genuinely believes every ridiculous thing he says, from the philosophically ridiculous to the just plain factually untrue. He really, truly, not only believes this stuff, but he believes that deep down, EVERYBODY believes it, even the people he perceives as attempting to subvert it.
The fact that he wasted the weekend before the Illinois elections in PR tells me he’s not trying to win.
Oh, he believes it, sure, but he can’t believe that he’ll be president. He’s not running for that office any more, and he honestly isn’t doing his party any favors by hanging in. He’s making a strong showing so he can get a spot of FOX or what have you.
I see your point. I just think that the GOP establishment is so sick and tired of the far right hijacking their agenda and installing their own. Romney may lose the general, but the GOP bosses could point to all the RW Tea Party pleasing primary candidate talking points that forced Romney to move to far to the right in the first place. And the main force behind all the madness, the Tea Party, is starting to show some loss of support, which I feel will continue.
I think you forgot:
- Anyone with a reputable college degree.
- Anyone who aspires to one. Fucking snobs.
True, but I was thinking of Santorum’s point of view. I’m sure he truly thinks that being homophobic means he is of high moral character. And he has been fairly consistent. Criticisms of him - from the right - for voting for debt ceiling increases and other normal compromises needed to run the government are unfair.
These days character and ideology are pretty mixed, because your opinion of the character of some candidates depends strongly on your ideology, especially on social issues. Sending a message often involves voting for someone more extremely for your point of view (like Paul or Nader) not someone opposed to it.
However the GOP establishment has created a primary and caucus system which has led to the takeover by the far right, and so far at least have not shown the backbone to stand up to the kooks - either in the party, such as the debt limit disaster, or outside, like Rush. When they get Romney nominated, which they will, losing in November is not going to diminish the power of the extremists. They’ve got the poll number; if they were listening to reason they’d know their people are not electable.
I think only when a true-blue extremist gets nominated and trounced will the moderates take real control - and it might be too late by then. It won’t happen this year.