Rachel Maddow unleashed a monster of an attack on Mitt Romney during her Wednesday show, calling him a liar over and over and over again. Romney’s senior adviser Eric Ferhnstrom got into trouble on Wednesday when he said that the campaign could reset itself during the general election, “like an Etch-a-Sketch.”
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Well, we didn’t win Illinois. But Louisiana (24 March) and Wisconsin (3 April) are more winnable.
Basically, we got creamed in Chicago and in other areas where Democrats are strong; but we did ok in the countryside.
I’ll give links to the Lamestream media’s take on the two rallies:
Rick’s rally was larger (IMHO) and the crowd was much larger; you didn’t see people raising their hands in prayer at the Mitt rally.
Mitt went on and on and on about “economic freedom”. Rick talked about the values that made America great and made REAL AMERICANS into great people.
Here is a collection of some photos from the two rallies; here are a couple from each:
Mitt’s
Rick’s
Yes, Rick trails Mitt in the latest poll, but if we can get our friends and neighbors to the polls, we can surprise some people!
Vote, and take a friend.
From Tom Ferrick in the New York Times:
That said, Santorum’s anger is not an act. It is genuine. It has its roots in the fact that he had the misfortune to be born in the second half of the 20th century. In his view, it was an era when moral relativism and anti-religious feeling held sway, where traditional values were ignored or mocked, where heretics ruled civic and political life. If anything, it’s gotten worse in the 21st, with the election of Barack Obama.
Leave it to Santorum to attack Obama on his theology, of all things. He sees the president as an exemplar of mushy, feel-good Christianity that emphasizes tolerance over rectitude, and the love of Jesus over the wrath of God. Predictably, Santorum is angry at that version of Christianity. He sees it as weak tea. […]
During the campaign, he has regularly criticized the media for harping on his public statements on homosexuality, contraception, abortion, the decline in American morals. Still, he can’t resist talking about them. These are the issues that get his juices flowing, not the deficit or federal energy policy.
For instance, I can’t think of many Catholics — I can’t think of many priests — who would want to get into an argument over the use of contraceptives. Santorum is, of course, the exception.
In 2010, Santorum delivered a little-noticed speech in Houston to mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s address in the same city before a convention of Protestant ministers. Kennedy went before the group to alleviate fears that if a Catholic was elected president of the United States, the Pope would rule America. As Kennedy said at the beginning of his speech: “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.”
Santorum went to Houston not to praise Kennedy but to bash him. To Santorum, the Kennedy speech did permanent damage because it led to secularization of American politics.
As I said before, Rick doesn’t believe in “government by spreadsheet”; public morality is very important. And Rick feels as if we have lost our way.
Note: the true political junkies will be able to see both viable candidates on Monday, 19 March.
Mitt will be at the Founder’s Circle (in front of Bradley Hall) on the campus of Bradley University at 5 and then Rick will be at Davis Brother’s Pizza in East Peoria at 7:30 pm.
Yes, some might be put off by poll numbers that show Rick down a bit. But remember that Rick as out performed his poll numbers. Also remember that polls are based on a model of turnout; if we can do the following:
1. Get people whose families make less than 100K per year to the polls
2. Get people from your church to the polls
3. If you live downstate (outside of the collar counties), just getting your friends to the polls
All of these things will help Rick.
Also, some of your Democrat friends might be inclined to vote for Rick if you ask them to; remind them that they can still vote for President Obama in the general election if they want to.
You might remind your friends that Rick and Mitt have roughly the same probability of being elected in the general, even though Mitt looks stronger in national polling. Reason: the election is decided by the Electoral College, and Rick is stronger in some swing states than Mitt is; Mitt picks up much of his strength from moderate and liberal Republicans who live in states that President Obama is all but sure to win anyway.
Yes, a couple of polls show Mitt with a narrow lead on Rick. But in Illinois, a large turnout outside of the wealthy Chicago suburbs (i. e., a large downstate turnout) may upset the applecart.
Remember that Rick has consistently out-performed his polling numbers, and Rick has consistently done well in areas with similar demographics to downstate Illinois.
Newt can’t accept that his day in the sun is over:
PALATINE, Ill.–Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on late Wednesday expressed frustration with both the news media and the Republican establishment for failing to understand his “large ideas” for transforming American politics.
As calls for Gingrich to bow out of the race grew louder after his second-place finishes in Mississippi and Alabama–two states he said he had a chance to win–the candidate seemed to be in low spirits and offered a grumpy analysis of the state of the GOP primary to a crowd that gathered for a Lincoln Day dinner in this northwestern suburb of Chicago.
“The thing I find most disheartening of this campaign is the difficulty of talking about large ideas on a large scale, because the news media can’t cover it and, candidly, my opponents can’t comprehend it,” Gingrich said, while also vowing to continue his campaign to the convention in Tampa this summer.
He called himself the only candidate of the four still in the contest “focused on ideas and … solutions and not just the usual politics,” and the only one advocating wholesale change to a political system that is “methodically and deliberately stupid.”[…]
Newt, Newt, the problem for you is: the voters DID listen to your ideas…and DID NOT LIKE THEM. How about showing some class?
Here is one huge difference between Mitt and Rick: Mitt’s approach is very “spread sheet” oriented. It appears that he feels as if one crunches the data correctly and puts the right economic policies in place, things will be ok.
But that approach misses something: people might know what the right policies are, but will they have the morals to behave ethically?
Note that PBS just ran a nice 10 minute segment about ethics problems at Goldman-Sachs.
Rick understands that a good moral foundation is important and he proudly stands up for morals, even when it means ridicule.
Santorum For America 2012 