VIDEO: Santorum on Hannity : The Other McCain

Stacy is on fire with his all-Santorum, all the time push for the former Senator, but, well….

RealClearPolitics

- Election 2012 – Iowa Republican Presidential Caucus
2008 Iowa Caucus on December 10, 2007 | 2008 GOP Iowa Final RCP Average
Polling Data

5.5%. That’s Santorum’s polling average in Iowa over the past few days. And if you note the trend, it’s sort of down, not up.

Let’s be honest: The only hope Santorum has for a win is his so-con credentials, and that just isn’t enough to get the job done in America – or the GOP – today.

Santorum backers are mystified that the Tea Party vote is swinging hard towards Newt Gingrich, and some of them are now excoriating the Tea Parties as hypocritical, not conservative, and other such rot. All this demonstrates is how stupid some commentators are, and how thoroughly they misunderstood what the Tea Parties are all about.

So let me ‘splain, Lucy, ya moron: Job number one: Fix Washington so that it is no longer actively trying to destroy the United States of America. Job number one-point-five: Defeat Barack Obama and his party as the first act in fixing Washington so it no longer…etc.

Socons tend to fixate on their own issues and miss the big picture. Because abortion and gay marriage are absolutely critical to their political views, they think they are to everybody’s belief system. But they aren’t. Here’s where the American voter ranks them currently on their list of major concerns:

Priorities

CNN/ORC Poll. Aug. 5-7, 2011. N=1,008 adults nationwide. Margin of
error ± 3.              

“Which of
the following is the most important issue facing the country today? The
economy. The federal budget deficit. Health care. The situation in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Libya. Illegal immigration. Terrorism. Policies toward gays
and lesbians.”
Options rotated    
%  

The economy
60        

The federal budget deficit
16        

Health care
9        

Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya
5        

Illegal immigration
4        

Terrorism
3        

Policies toward gays, lesbians
1        

Other (vol.)
1        

Unsure
1  

And…

Priorities

CBS News Poll. Oct. 1-5, 2010. N=1,129 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.
“What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?” Open-ended
			%
	Economy/Jobs		54
	Health care		7
	Budget deficit/National debt		3
	Immigration		3
	Education		2
	Moral values/Family values		2
	The President/Barack Obama		2
	Other		22
	Unsure		5

And…

NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted by the polling
organizations of Peter Hart (D) and Bill McInturff (R). June 17-21, 2010.
N=1,000 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.1.              

“Let me
list some issues that have been proposed for the federal government to
address. Please tell me which one of these items you think should be the top
priority for the federal government. Job creation and economic growth. The
Gulf Coast oil spill and energy. The deficit and government spending.
National security and terrorism. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Health
care. Social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.” If more
than one: “Well, if you had to choose just one, which do you think should
be the top priority?”
Options
rotated  
 
%
Job creation and economic
growth
33        

Gulf Coast oil spill and
energy
22        

Deficit and government
spending
15        

National security and
terrorism
9        

Iraq and Afghanistan
9        

Health care
7        

Social issues
2        

All equally (vol.)
3      

Social issues, two percent. Gay issues, one percent. And so on.

Any politician who thinks he or she is going to ride those issues to victory in today’s climate is simply delusional about what today’s climate really is. And their supporters are projecting their concerns onto the big screen of their desire, which doesn’t reflect the reality of the day at all.

The Tea Parties aren’t out to stop gay marriage or ban abortion. It isn’t even on their radar screens. It isn’t even on their radar screens in Iowa, for heaven’s sakes, no matter how much those who get all damp and messy over Newt’s three marriages would like it to be.

Now, here’s a question for the socons: Why do you want to elect politicians who (supposedly) hold socially conservative beliefs? Is it simply as good examples for the rest of us? Or is it because you want those politicians to change the law, create new law, or both, that enforce your beliefs on everybody else?

It is obviously the second. You want to use the hammer of the state to make sure that others live according to your beliefs, whether they want to or not.

Clue: Most Americans are no longer interested in giving socons that power. They don’t want to see laws that criminalize the removal of a blastocyst as “murder.” They don’t think that whether or not gay folks get the official imprimatur of government for their relationships is of crucial importance to, well, anything.

The prospect of hanging focuses the mind wonderfully. And the national mind has felt the noose tightening around its collective neck for several years now. Angel-on-the-head-of-a-pin arguments about abortion, or sweeping hysteria about gays destroying the institution of marriage are minuscule distractions when you’re faced with possibly permanent unemployment, bankruptcy, negative home ownership, and a government that seems hell-bent on making your pain worse, not better.

That’s what this election is about. That’s why Tea Partiers are going for Gingrich. They believe he has the knowledge, ability, experience, and chops to take it to Obama head on, defeat him, and start to fix what’s wrong in Washington. They think that Newt can lessen the pain instead of making it worse.

Now, Newt watchers can debate this, but look at how almost every GOP insider attack on Newt starts: “Newt is a very smart guy, and he did achieve major changes in favor of the GOP, but….”

In other words, Newt has the qualifications and abilities, if he chooses to use them. That’s the big issue. It’s not whether Newt was married three times. It’s not his stand on gay marriage or abortion, about which the vast majority of voters don’t give a rat’s ass right now, no matter how many rigged polls (do you consider abortion, gay marriage, or adultery the single biggest problem facing the nation today?) are trotted out to belie that notion.

The Tea Parties are swinging toward the guy they think – hope – will help them get the job done that they have set for themselves. There is nothing – sorry – about Rick Santorum that is going to make them think he’s better qualified to do that job. His stance on abortion or gay marraige is irrelevant to the question of whether he can fix Washington and make the pain lessen. And almost nobody cares about anything else these days.

It’s the Depression, stupid!.

Do I wish it were different? I want to destroy socialism in this country as a political force, and that means destroying the power of the Democrat party, and I want to destroy statism in the GOP, which means changing or replacing that party as well. And, for me, “statism” includes socons trying to wield state power to impose their own beliefs on the people at large,whether it’s about abortion, gay marriage, or some other social issue they are up in arms about.  I also know that the Democrat power held the House of Representatives in a stranglehold for more than half a century until Newt Gingrich broke their power and took the House from them.  They’ve never been the same since.  I want to see somebody do that again, and I don’t see anybody else in the current GOP list of candidates – certainly not Mitt “I Invented Obamacare First” Romney, certainly not Ron “I’m a Crank” Paul, certainly not Herman “Okay, I Sure Didn’t See That Coming” Cain, certainly not Michelle “Look How Shrill I Can Get From the Back Benches” Bachmann, and certainly not Rick “I’ve Only Been Married Once” Santorum – with a better shot.

Now, aside from all this, here is the real reason Rick Santorum is not going to boom in the polls or the primaries: There have been three flavors of the month for the non-Romney voter: Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Herman Cain. The fourth, Newt Gingrich, is not a flavor of the month, because he represents a permanent shift. Why permanent? Because everybody has gotten tired of the shifting and flavor-tasting.  There is something about the number three – do something three times and fail, and you’ll probably stop doing that thing. I could feel the sensation as it was happening – a sort of relief that “Okay, that’s all done with. Now, let’s get on with the nut-cutting.”

Mitt Romney has never been able to move convincingly much beyond the 20% mark in GOP support. The idea that so little support could somehow be parlayed into the GOP nomination is ludicrous, no matter how much the RNC flacks over at NRO might wish it so. Nor is it any less ludicrous that the GOP will suddenly shift for the fifth time to a former Senator because he is pushing his main qualifications as being that he opposes abortion and gay marriage, and is a good family guy.

Nobody cares.

The GOP voters have bigger Obamas to fry, and they’ve pretty much made up their minds on who’s going to be in charge of the deep fryer for them.