Anyone here from PA? How would Santorum do as Republican Nominee?

[denem]

Could you give us a quick and dirty summary of his failings as a Senator, as far as PA voters were concerned.

[Justice wanted]

1. Yes I'm from PA Just outside of Pittsburgh. Santorum was our Senator for a number of years.

A lot of PA is -is Well, Let's put it this way I know a lot of my people in my town that speak EXACTLY like Pukeum and understand his logic and believe it themselves.

[fadedrose]

12. I was born in McKeesport and lived there for years

Folks there will vote for someone whose beliefs mirror theirs as much as possible. Religion is very important - the population is getting old, younger folks have left because of the mills and factories closing...

I could see persecution there, but not liberals against conservatives, more the other way around....

The ethnic religious traditions were beautiful - food and music, fasting, church hymns, etc., and I liked that they held them...but on the whole, PA is more prejudiced than other northern states....unless it's changed in the last 20 years...

[Justice wanted]

15. Exactly.

[Brettongarcia]

2. You mean, "Nick Sanitary Tablet"?

Too holier-than-thou, first of all. Though PA is full of primitive Catholics that love him, as one of their own.

[LynneSin]

14. Just remember Bob Casey Jr. is also Catholic

Casey is one of the few people I'll actually call pro-life. First, he believes there are enough rules about abortion on the books (he's not as rabidily opposed to abortion as his father is). But one thing about Bob is this - he cares about the fetus after it is born. He is actually pretty progressive in other areas outside of Abortion/Birth Control and for that he's a pretty decent guy.

[msanthrope]

3. He didn't live in Pennsylvania, and that shit got old.

Seriously.

He stopped living in PA, he and his family. Moved to VA.

He then charged the local school district where he owned a 2 bedroom house (rented out to relatives) for his kid's cybercharter fees--about a 100k.

When caught, he tried to claim that this 2 bedroom house really, really was his PA residence.

He got caught red handed.

He got his ass kicked by a nun who wrote this Letter to the Editor....

Not moral messages

As a teacher for the Diocese of Pittsburgh for 14 years, one important lesson I learned was that no matter what I said to the child, whatever the parents said superseded my message. What parents say and how they live sends a message stronger than any teacher's voice no matter what the issue.

Sen. Rick Santorum and his wife have taught their children a powerful lesson on civic responsibility by refusing to pay any tuition money to the Penn Hills School District for their children who attended the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School ("Penn Hills Loses Bid to Charge Santorum," July 12). Released from that payment on a technicality shows that even an upstanding, moral gentleman like Sen. Santorum teaches his children the following lessons:

1) Take advantage of the system whenever you can.

2) The little guy pays while the rich and powerful guy gets away with it.

3) As a Catholic, you have no obligation to pay your share to the common good in spite of Catholic social doctrine.

More at link...

Read more: http://post-gazette.com/pg/05202/541074.stm#ixzz1m1uzLQbq

[denem]

6. Thank you for that. How did he try and justify that fraud?

Somebody 'mistyped' his claim?

[MrSlayer]

4. He got smashed by 18 points in his last election here.

Using our tax money to homeschool his kids in Virginia didn't go over very well. He would lose the state handily.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. He would lose, badly

Dude lives in Virginia, and Pennsylvanians know his bullshit well. Dude got creamed by Bob Casey, who rode his dad's coattails to a Senate seat, even if he was a thoroughly boring technocrat.

What PAers know that others don't: not only is Santorum a fucking Xtian wackaloon, he's also corrupt as the day is long. Guy's a fucking crook who hides behind vestments.

[appleannie1]

10. How true. He can't steal from taxpayers now so he is running for president.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. Obama camp no doubt has a fully dedicated room in the Chicago HQ

with files on Santorum's various crooked shenanigans. It's also why the GOP establishment winces at the guy, much like Newt. Santoprum was one of the most corrupt Senators around during his time. It's really the reason PAers bounced his ass in a landslide (18% in a supposed "swing state"?? - that's an ass-kicking). There's really no need to bust out the filthy Santorum file at this point, since he has no hope of doing anything other than diminishing Romney with the GOP base, which is precisely what the Obama people want him to be doing. If Romney offers him the VP slot (which seems to be his goal), then he gets the treatment, and his stink will be all over Romney, believe me, cuz the dude stinks to high heaven.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. He replaced a liberal bastion - Harris Wofford

who had been appointed to fill out the term of John Heintz (who had been killed in the helicopter accident).

Heintz and Santorum were like night and day (so-so to insane) when it comes to repukes, but damn, I miss Wofford.

[Mnemosyne]

8. Erie, PA local rag, that usually supported that creep, ran a poll recently and 75%, iirc, said no.

This is a red area.

[appleannie1]

9. Here is an old news story when he got caught educating his kids free in VA claiming residency here

Last week, the Philadelphia Jewish Voice received a startling press release from Rick Santorum's campaign manager. According to the release, "operatives" from the campaign of Santorum's rival, Pennsylvania Treasurer Bob Casey, Jr., were peeking through the windows of the Santorum family home in Penn Hills, a suburb of Pittsburgh. The release goes on to say that "Casey's crew violated the Santorum family's home in search of political ammunition, instilling fear in Rick Santorum's wife, Karen, their six children, his in-laws and their neighbors to the point where the police had to be called in to protect the home."

Sounds spooky, doesn't it? You can just imagine the site of poor, defenseless Karen Santorum, huddling in fear with her children in their Penn Hills home, as crazed Democrats surround the property like zombies from a George Romero movie and press their faces against the windows.

There's just one problem with this nightmare scenario. The Santorum family doesn't live in that two-bedroom house in Penn Hills. No one lives there. There are no curtains on the windows and no furniture in the home. Santorum may hold title to the property, and he may claim it's his official residence, but he clearly doesn't live there. He lives with his wife Karen and children Elizabeth, Johnny, Daniel, Peter, Sarah Maria and Patrick a couple of hundred miles away in Leesburg, Virginia.

[Brettongarcia]

11. Too Catholic for general population

PA is a suprisingly rural/uneducated state. Once coal-mining country, then oil, even Philly has a sort of working-class simplicity and anti-intellectuality. And a belief in miracles. It seems to be the last holdout of Catholic neo-conservatives; Archbishop/Cardinal Chaput, the arch culture warrrior, was just appointed to head the Philly diocese.

This got him elected: he's quite the altar-boy at first blush. But? he's tarnished. And yet still too goody-goody for most. And even? Too simply, conseratively Catholic. His main issue, like more Catholic conservatives, is Abortion. Really, he belongs to the EWTN/RN Apostate Church of Holy Fetus, more than anything. Abortion is his one issue; and no doubt he's been behind much of the current dealings on contraception: the Bishops love him. As does EWTN. And Steubenville.

But finally? As far as many are concerned, probably too Catholic, still, for most, in the national arnea. Our first 34 presidents or so were all Protestants; Kennedy got in (c. 1960), only by explicitly saying that he believed in separation of church and state, and would not be following the Pope's orders. (It's said that in fact, a meeting with the Pope did not go well.)

And his religion is pretty ... simple. I think his father was a grocer? In a PA that included such luminary intellectuals, as SLy Stallone (/"Rocky&quot .

Coal mining country. Then oil. Then Penn State football. YO! Then a Philly Cheese Dog. Works in PA. But on the national stage? Even finally had problems in PA.

Santorum is getting all his support as the Last White Hope, essentially: very White, and and very conservatively Christian. That gets about 20% of the population, solid. But the rest? Very problematic indeed.