Post-NH: Newt and Tricky Rick: That's What It's All About

So why was the headline of the Huffington Post after Ronney's very expected win in NH NOT about Romney, but about Ron Paul's silver medal?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/ron-paul-new-hampshire-primary-results-2012_n_1195647.html

Well perhaps that was because it wasn't former PA Sen. Rick Santorum or former House Speaker Newt (who tied for 4th out of the money) or the other guy from Utah (will Gov. Huntsman ever realize the 100-1 long shot of America electing a president from Utah, despite his show in this horse race?).

Jan 10, 2012 (100% of precincts reporting)

Mitt Romney	97,532	39.3%
Ron Paul	56,848	22.9%
Jon Huntsman	41,945	16.9%
Newt Gingrich	23,411	9.4%
Rick Santorum	23,362	9.4%
Rick Perry	1,766	0.7%
Michele Bachmann	349	0.1%
Other	3,272	1.3%

I wonder, when you have these vanity campaigns like Santorum's, what is really being angled for - is it to have their voice heard in th epolitical discourse, is it their love affair with the crowd and addictiong to camera or is it their quest to have a biting new commentary show on Fox News show to air after Huckabee?

 

It can't be a larger post-political career consulting contract or more nugatory but lucrative corporate board appointments, theses are always there it seems for ex-politicos?  So are they just so enamored with blathering on and spouting off about their wonderful ideas, so they feel compelled to keep running for offices just to have more fame and more glory and more self-gratification in the form of supporters giving them money to throw away on a lost cause? 

I mean c'mon, anyone who lives in PA has got to remember that former Sen. Santorum became 'former' when he disgracefully could not beat then-Auditor General Robert. P. "Mr. Invisible" Casey Jr. even though he ran one of the stealthiest campaigns ever for a U.S. Senate seat.

Bloggers and capitol reporters alike marveled 5.5 years ago at the more than 20,000 undervotes in the 2006 primary when Lynn Swann ran for governor.  (Who knows what #88 was angling for? The powers that be could have set him up with a nice seat in Congress, but he declined.)

I was one of those Swann-Santorum undervoters. Call me a Liberal-Republican or RINO or smart, but I just couldn't vote for Mr. Conservative so anti-abortion he and his wife decided to go through the trauma of delivering a stillborn child rather than cut the pregnancy short.

I don't usually reveal how I vote, but my vote in this case was a protest against ultraconservatism to a fault. I wanted to vote for none of the above, but in the primary there was only one above.  Gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann polled 21,706 more votes than then-incumbent Sen. Rick Santorum earned despite neither candidate having an contested primary. People didn't apathetically stay home, they went and just didn't push that button or pull that lever next to Tricky Rick's name.

I guess 5 years flying in a stealth teflon under-the-radar logoed bus makes Santorum think the smell of that undervote is a little less fishy. Add to that the stench of the huge upset in the General Election when he, the incumbent, lost by 708,206 votes, 41.3% to 58.7% to Mr. Invisible Casey. OK, that was a landslide year for Democrats in Congress, but all but us Pennsylvanians seem to forget how unpoplar Santorum was in his home state - of Virginia - just a few years ago.

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United States Senator

Candidate	Votes	Percent
CASEY, BOB JR (DEM)	2,392,984	58.7%
SANTORUM, RICK (REP)	1,684,778	41.3%

You must remember, Casey ran a campaign that had him literally doing as few public appearances, press conferences or debates as possible so Santorum would have nothing to react to and so that Casey would not screw up a 10-point advantage he enjoyed throughout most of the campaign.

Now, after setting up camp in Iowa and South Carolina, Tricky Rick thinks he can pull the shroud of Turin over the eyes of the GOPers in the country - or at least those in Iowa and South Carolina and not quite 10% of NH. Do these voters know anything about him except that he has pretty plastic hair, painted-on smile and says a bunch of wacky stuff?

Think of it, he couldn't win in his own (former) fairly conservative though lately blue leaning home turf, now he wants the nation to warm to his right wing philosophies?

Don't be duped by the perma-smile. If you want your daughters living in an America where all females will be required to give birth 5 or 6 times, be denied contraception and the right to a safe abortion in cases of rape and incest, and where all your sons will be required to kill large and small furry animals alike with their government-issued firearms, then go for it. That is not the kind of liberty I expect Americans want.

If Santorum makes it onto the PA primary ballot on April 24 (which I am guessing he will just because he used to live here), which is one of the last in the nation and in 2008 only include the top tier candidate (McCain, but not Romney) and a couple rogues (Grassroots Paul and Host Huckabee). Most people also forget that Hillary beat Barrack in 2008, 54.6 to 45.4 and won only 8 counties, including my home county, Dauphin the seat of the state capitol.
 

If Sanrtom is the nominee, Obama wins for sure. If for some reason he wins, I will sell everything, move to Mexico, Chile or one of the closest neo-fascist regimes and become an ex-par because as a non-god-fearing Americans, my ilk would no longer be welcome here.