# Stupid Republican idea of the day
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 248
### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4941 "2012-03-30T12:34:13Z")
> [@elucidator](#):
>
> “Nigerian”
I’m about 95% certain you’re joking, but just in case:
He wasn’t about to say “Nigerian.” The vowel is different and, anyway, that word makes little sense in the context.
I’m also about 95% certain that “ni” as spoken was short for “nigger” (or “nigra” or “Negro”). The question is whether this was an accidental blunder by Santorum, or deliberate:
To send a message to his base, while preserving deniability if the left-wing media goes after him for it.
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4942 "2012-03-30T12:46:49Z")
never mind
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### Author:  [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4943 "2012-03-30T13:39:30Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#):
>
> You’ve heard of the invisible hand of the Free Market? This is one of the fingers of that hand.
[Rizzo the Rat] Before you answer, I would be _really_ clear on the final destination of the finger! [/RtR}
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4944 "2012-03-30T13:43:43Z")
Nickelodeon.
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### Author:  [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4945 "2012-03-30T14:07:23Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> Well, it was bad news for Michigan, but good news for Wisconsin. When his dad was running for governor of Michigan, it was a problem. For the presidency, it’s a push. It’s still slightly tone deaf, but it’s not “I like to fire people” bad.
>
> It raises other issues, (companies treating workers as disposable, playing states against one another to the benefit of the company, etc.), but those don’t make for such easy sound bites.
Well okay, but you got to admit, what he finds humorous is at least a little out of touch. It didn’t even make me grin a little.
🙂
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### Author:  [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4946 "2012-03-30T14:27:00Z")
Nickelback. Everyone hates those guys.
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4947 "2012-03-30T14:32:04Z")
Waitaminit! He used anit-war as a slur? Nigger, although vile, is understandable as black people are pretty worthless in this country as is demonstrated by teens getting shot for buying Skittles and iced tea. But anti-war? So Santorum is the pro-war candidate?
Yay God! Yay war!
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4948 "2012-03-30T14:35:39Z")
Clearly Santorum feels that Obama gets too bogged down in the minutiae of legislation and was saying that he’s an “anti-war government niggler” and we should vote that niggler out of the White House. Who could possibly be offended by that?
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4949 "2012-03-30T14:59:42Z")
Reminds me of [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=637374).
(Link to thread noting the gargantuan balls it took to respond to a video of him saying “_I don’t want to make \*\*black people’s \*\*lives better by giving them somebody else’s money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money._” With no other/alternate explanation than “\*I looked at that, and I didn’t say that. \*”
_Twice_ Mr. Santorum? Fool me once, shame on me … fool me … won’t get fooled again.
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### Author:  [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4950 "2012-03-30T15:32:41Z")
> [@Gyrate](#):
>
> Clearly Santorum feels that Obama gets too bogged down in the minutiae of legislation and was saying that he’s an “anti-war government niggler” and we should vote that niggler out of the White House. Who could possibly be offended by that?
Oh, of course!
Obama’s an anti-war government niggardly spender!
No, wait, Obama’s supposed to be spending our taxes frivolously, right?
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### Author:  [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4951 "2012-03-30T15:33:47Z")
Based on “Ovama,” etc. I think it’s probably just stumbling over words again.
And I must say, after watching a few seconds of Santorum… goddamn, he’s a pustule.
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### Author:  [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4952 "2012-03-30T15:40:35Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#):
>
> Based on “Ovama,” etc. I think it’s probably just stumbling over words again.
Probably, but given what **Rhythmdvl** linked to, he’s 2 for 2 on stumbling over words that sound really _really_ bad given the context.
I mean, maybe it was an innocuous, nonsensical slip and his tongue was getting tangled; mine certainly does from time to time. We can even discount the fact that he should theoretically be a pretty good public speaker; we’re all human, after all.
But to be talking about people on welfare and trip over a word that sounds an awful lot like “black,” then to be talking about Obama in a negative manner and start a word that starts with what sounds an awful lot like “nig,” I dunno. Maybe he’s just supremely unlucky. Anyone got a clip of Obama talking about those hon- fine gentlemen vying for the Republican candidacy? (He was going to say honorable, not honkies, he really was.)
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4953 "2012-03-30T15:46:06Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#):
>
> Based on “Ovama,” etc. I think it’s probably just stumbling over words again.
>
> And I must say, after watching a few seconds of Santorum… goddamn, he’s a pustule.
What do you think he could possibly have mispronounced?
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### Author:  [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4954 "2012-03-30T15:51:55Z")
Perhaps he was going to say “niggardly no-good pacifist”?
Oh and the question is whether it was a Freudian slip (revealing the inner machinations of what he’s been aching to say): it’s highly unlikely that he’d calculate somehing like that as helping his campaign.
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### Author:  [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4955 "2012-03-30T15:52:07Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#):
>
> What do you think he could possibly have mispronounced?
I didn’t say mispronounced. I said stumbling over words. I think, in the few times I’ve been able to stomach listening to Santorum, that he’s someone who stumbles over his words quite often. If I didn’t hate him so much, I’d feel some tiny bit of sympathy, as I tend to have the same problem. As it is, I didn’t hear “black” in the previous incident (I heard something like plah), and I hear “nick” in this one.
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### Author:  [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4956 "2012-03-30T16:33:25Z")
And he stumbles more than most since he made speaking without a teleprompter one of his trademarks (an oblique Obama slam, since he’s referenced that Mitt and Newt should be able to speak about their positions without one also - but everyone knows that Obama is helpless without one :smack:).
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4957 "2012-03-30T16:36:09Z")
[So you don’t have to listen to over a half an hour of shit.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeaA8nkiWdk) And **jgoddess** , the word he’s stumbling over is “nigger”.
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### Author:  [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4958 "2012-03-30T16:49:48Z")
the anti-war, government…nigger?
I heard “black” in the video from awhile ago. I hear “nig” in this one. But how would that sentence make sense if that is what he was trying to say?
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4959 "2012-03-30T16:52:40Z")
> [@C3](#):
>
> the anti-war, government…nigger?
>
> I heard “black” in the video from awhile ago. I hear “nig” in this one. But how would that sentence make sense if that is what he was trying to say?
See post #4946. IMO that was exactly what he was saying. I don’t even understand your question. The sentence is perfectly cromulent if you’re a racist. Other people might say anti-war government **guy**. Birthers might say anti-war government **Kenyan**
.
Perhaps he gets a bit overenthusiastic in front of all-white crowds.
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### Author:  [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4960 "2012-03-30T17:02:29Z")
> [@Biggirl](#):
>
> [So you don’t have to listen to over a half an hour of shit.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeaA8nkiWdk) And **jgoddess** , the word he’s stumbling over is “nigger”.
I don’t think it’s likely.
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