WARNING: Don't misunderestimate him: Santorum may actually be electable.

[downwardly_mobile]

So like many of us and like the pundits, I watched Santorum's speech tonight, and then Romney's. Santorum can give a good speech - not outstanding, but good, and with feeling.

Romney's speech showed him at his worst -- as a merchandizer, as Tweety said afterwards. The worst part of Romney's speech was when he recited the line

"O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!" -- and THEN Romney, rather than making some heart-felt point about veterans, just did a shout-out -- along the lines of "Any veterans in the audience? Raise your hand" a lot like the gameshow emcee he too often appears to be.

Romney up until now looked like the Republican's Mr. Electable. Santorum looks like Mr. Electable now.

Let's start with the all-important image stuff: Santorum is a tall man, he has enough hair, and he looks really quite youthful for his 52 years. He's not a raving beauty, but you could call him low-key handsome. He's not a full-on fatty like Gingrich, although he does have a little bit of a belly.

As I said above, he's really not a bad speaker at all. He seems to show real feeling, or at least is far, far and away more skilled than Romney is at simulating sincerity.

He was a Congressman for 4 years and a Senator for 12, so that even though he lost in 2006, he's not a hopeless retread like Gingrich or a half-Governor like Palin.

I saw his wife speak at the start of a caucus tonight on C-SPAN. She's not a bad-looking woman, but most of all she comes across as down-to-earth with no airs at all. And one might even be able to say the same thing about her husband -- there really is something a little salt-of-the-earth, working-class about him: just for one thing, even his first name, "Rick", has kind of become, in recent years, a joke amongst the cultural elite who have come to see it as declasse. And the tones of his voice have no hint of the elite about them.

Yes, he's a full-on, hard-core social conservative -- but he doesn't exactly sound that way - he doesn't come across crazy the way Bachmann does, even though he shares her social ideology.

And as Ed Schultz was pointing out, Santorum is willing to talk about manufacturing and manufacturing jobs (if not to offer a real solution for those issues.)

Santorum may just be electable. You heard it here first. In fact, for the first time tonight, and I never thought I'd think this, I'd rather Obama face Romney than Santorum in November. Suddenly, Romney looks a lot more beatable.

[tinrobot]

1. Stop it, you're scaring me...

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

2. I don't think Ricky will be the nominee......

....but he's a total right-wing whackjob when you let him talk enough, and that's why I would not fear him come November.

[Betty Karlson]

23. what about Romney/ Santorum 2012? n/t

[WinkyDink]

27. Mormon/ Catholic nutcases together? I don't THINK so!

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

32. That does worry me

[Lugnut]

3. Yeah, sure he is.

And pigs are going to fly out of my ass too.

[Tx4obama]

4. I doubt he'll last long. Santorum said that he thinks states should be allowed to BAN Birth Control

that will make TONS of women run away from him in droves !!!

[ellisonz]

7. Damn, you beat me to it by 3 minutes...

...and it will scare away men! Let's face it, America loves its copulation, and loves it even more when there's no chance of unwanted whining children.

[Withywindle]

12. Men won't like that either. n/t

[downwardly_mobile]

13. Except that's never going to happen - the Supreme Court would have to overturn Griswold

and other cases from the early 60s at least. The President can't do that. And even if the Supreme Court eventually acted, it would only send it back to the states, who wouldn't do anything either.

It's like Reagan and every Republican President since who, rhetorically, has been entirely anti-choice. The talk is appreciated by the social cons, everyone else ignores it.

And talking hypothetically against birth control might not go over so badly anymore (again, as everyone knows that ban will never happen) -- the Sexual Revolution didn't exactly work out to be the happiness machine it promised to be. Just ask almost anyone you know who's single in the 21st century.

[JI7]

5. at this point i would rather run against Romney

but since i already think he will win the nomination i do want him to struggle to get it.

[elleng]

6. Steve Schmitt, repug on MSNBC, said Santorum hit it out of the park with his speech.

Sincerely with feeling, compared with mean mittens.

[seabeyond]

8. ha ha ha, lol. nt

[dogman]

9. They did give us w

I was amazed at the irony in his speech. His grandfather fled Fascism in Italy and his willingness to implement Fascism in our country. Also note his grandfather mined in to his 70's. Might be why he sees no need for SS. Conservatism, looking to the past for the future.

[REP]

10. Compared to the other has-beens and wannabes, maybe - but in Real Life, nope

Sick Rick doesn't have what it takes.

[subterranean]

11. I'll wait until he wins a few more primaries

before I start worrying about that.

[still_one]

14. If santorum is electable, then it is over for the country. It would mean that the country has

Shifted so far to the right that everything from social security and Medicare to civil rights and woman's rights will be in grave peril of being lost

[scheming daemons]

15. As a lifelong Pennsylvanian, I must say you are full of sh*t

Santorum got beat 59% to 41% when he ran for re-election in PA in 2006. And that was against a very lame candidate (Casey)


People are on to him.


He has no chance in hell of every winning anything nationally.


I pray to god someone like Santorum is the GOP nominee.

[downwardly_mobile]

16. It's actually good to hear this --

I've heard and read that before from other Pennsylvanians. You guys may need to be our front line troops if Santorum gets the GOP nod!

[still_one]

18. I sure would rather be up against santorum then Romney. Romney can attract independents, and that

is dangerous

[WinkyDink]

29. Indies are usually Libertarians. Vote for a Theocratic Mormon? NOT.

[Cosmocat]

30. He IS everything that a great POLITICIAN is

OP is correct, he is a very imposing person physically (and he knows it).
He is smart - not a moron like the other half dozen carnival freaks who have been the hot anti-Romney commidity the last 6 months.
He is seriously hard worker as a pol.
He is tough.
The religious right wing will love him because he is one of the most extreme politicians in pushing religious into government.
The neocons will love him, because he is is one the most extreme politicians in beating the war drums.
He ran K street when he was a senator, so the business Rs know and like him.

He is well spoken, informed and does well in debates.

I have been surprised that he did not get a turn earlier.

I think he is a VERY formidable person in this primary, where you have a third of the party that only wants Romney because they think he is the best bet to beat BO, and the other two thirds of the party is looking for the most bat snot insane lunatic it can get.

I am a lifelong PA person, and I am well aware of what happened with Casey and Santorum. I tend to agree, that come a general, he is SO extreme, BO would look pretty good in comparison.

We will see.

[stevenleser]

17. Under the right conditions, anyone nominated by one of the two parties can beat an incumbent

As conditions are now, I dont think any of the candidates could beat the President. If unemployment goes down from here, we will start to see conditions where the President will have a huge victory. If it goes up, he starts to become vulnerable.

There are three reasons Santorum would lose:

1. As someone already mentioned, I dont think in 2012 you can be a virulent homophobic bigot and win the Presidency. Thankfully, I think that time has passed.

2. Speaking in favor of the right of states to outlaw contraception is really going to hurt Santorums ability to get the women's vote. Pro-Life already causes a problem, speaking in favor of the right to take away contraception is going to really hurt.

3. Being in favor of Arizona's draconian anti-immigration laws has to hurt him with latinos.

Those three issues together really add up to some real problems in having a chance at being elected. I think unemployment would have to go to 20% before Santorum could have a shot.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

19. Women...

...who can no longer obtain birth control thanks to Sanitorium's misogynist, meddling control-freak attitudes will love "President Sanitorium". Won't they?

[struggle4progress]

20. He's not even nearly electable: he lost his Senate seat in a 41-59 blowout cuz he fugged up bigtime

And it's easy enough nowadays to document that he's an extremist, with views that will revolt a broad swatch of the public

[bowens43]

21. the republican nominee has already been decided.

in addition ,Santorum is a raving lunatic, batshit crazy. Romney can be what ever he needs to be . Romney is definitely tougher candidate. He can beat Obama if he plays his cards right.

[moriah]

22. If not at the top of the ticket... he could bring Pennsylvania.

Yeah, he screwed up but a lot of people in Arkansas didn't like Clinton, and I think he's the only president we've *ever* swung red for.

With PA being a key battleground state... it's something I am hoping does not happen.

[SpiralHawk]

24. Ding Ding Ding

A winner !

[WinkyDink]

26. Bwahahahah! No, he canNOT "bring" my state! PA IS BLUE.

[justiceischeap]

28. With his ass getting handed to him by Pennsylvanians 41-59 in 2006?

I doubt he could bring PA. Plus, when was the last time PA went for a Repub? 1988, that's when.

In 1996 it was 49% - 40% Dem and the percentage has only gone up from there. In 2008 it was 55% - 44%. I'm not saying that it could never happen but I don't think Santorum is the one to make it happen.

[WinkyDink]

25. He is INSANE. The nation as a whole will not elect this Catholic Fundy.

[Ilsa]

31. I called it on Sunday morning:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/100298657

Santorum just might be their guy.

I hope Santorum supporters are asking questions about Rove and vote-rigging.

[hifiguy]

33. Nope

He's just as crazy as Bachmann, just slightly better at hiding it. Women would run away in droves from anyone who wants to allow birth control to be banned. So would many men.

[spanone]

34. santorum is in serious wingnut christian territory....

he doesn't believe in contraceptives

he thinks 'intelligent design' should be taught in schools

he opposes abortion even for rape and incest victims

he hates homosexuals

etc. etc. etc.

his policies are unelectable....

p.s. In his first career, as a lawyer, he represented the World Wrestling Federation, "arguing that pro wrestling was not a sport and should be exempt from federal steroid regulations," according to the City Paper profile.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/11-things-you-might-not-know-about-rick-santorum-20120102

[center rising]

35. You're joking right??!!

[AlinPA]

36. Not in PA. Believe me, he would get clobbered here.

[Brickbat]

37. I object to your use of the word "retard" in this context.

It's hurtful to many people.

[hifiguy]

38. It was "retread" not the other word.

[Brickbat]

40. Thanks! That's what I get for reading too quickly!

My apologies to the OP!

[SomethingFishy]

39. Yeah...

Once you get past the questionable finances when he was a Congressman and Senator, the women's rights, the gay rights, minorities, birth control, man on dog, the destruction of social services, abortion, outlawing birth control, the War On Drugs, the War On Terror, and education, there may still be a number of old white people willing to vote for him

[Quantess]

41. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert would probably be happy if Santorum was the nominee.

Or maybe he's even too creepy for them to joke about...?
Anyway, I think Santorum would be an interesting opponent for Obama. Can't wait!

[MrSlayer]

42. When the story of the Santorums passing a corpse around the family goes mainstream, he's done.

He's crazy even for a Republican. And that's saying something.