Go, Rickey, Go

I won the Iowa Caucuses and all I got was a crappy television show:

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) might win the Iowa caucuses. He is spending plenty of time there, and GOP caucus-goers are of the same mind as the anti-abortion-rights, anti-gay-marriage conservative firebrand.

But if 2008 is any guide, winning Iowa would only guarantee Santorum a television show, as it did for that year’s winner, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Democrats know this, and they are delighted to watch Santorum and other likely Republican candidates fall all over themselves to lay claim to the role of the social conscience of the GOP.

Because while Republicans are running to the right on social issues in an effort to win support in Iowa, they could be alienating the independent and centrist voters who will decide the general election.

The idea is that any talk that isn’t about the economy is helpful to the president, just like any talk that wasn’t about the war in Iraq (like gay marriage) was helpful to Bush in 2004. So, it’s a complete flip.

I’d argue that the Republicans really have no arguments on any level that really work for them in a general election. They alienate everybody. Complaining about spending only gets you so far and it isn’t much of an argument when your party controls the House of Representatives and is cutting spending that people actually like. They could exploit glaring weaknesses in our foreign policy, but they’re on the wrong (hawkish) side of those issues. It’d be easier to talk about creating jobs if they weren’t intent on destroying them.

I totally hope that Rick Santorum wins the Iowa Caucuses. That would be so awesome.

12 Comments

Brendan Skwire on March 9, 2011 at 1:09 pm

Agreed. The GOP’s insane cuts are a gift to the democrats. Or they would be if the democrats had any kind of strategic sense, which most of them don’t.

Corbett’s freakshow is going to go over like a turd in the swimming pool. I’m beginning to think he’s not too bright either, and probably a good candidate for Santorum’s running mate (although Mr. Popularity Scott Walker’s my favorite there).

BooMan on March 9, 2011 at 2:18 pm

I say Nittany, you say Lion.

Nittany…

Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed state budget would move Penn State “substantially” toward privatization and signal “near-total abandonment” of public higher education in Pennsylvania, university President Graham Spanier said Wednesday.

“Public higher education is not just a private good. It is a public good that benefits all society,” Spanier said in a 55-minute press conference at the Outreach Building at University Park.

Spanier opened in part by declaring that “Abraham Lincoln is weeping today,” a reference to the Morrill Act of 1862. The act, signed by then-President Lincoln, fostered the creation of land-grant institutions — including Penn State — to expand the availability to higher education for the non-elite.

Maybe Joe Paterno can travel to Harrisburg and punch Corbett in the face.
- Phil Perspective on March 9, 2011 at 2:58 pm
  
  Maybe Joe Paterno can travel to Harrisburg and punch Corbett in the face.
  
  Such vitriol, Boo!! Anyway, I bet you could guess who I’d take in a Paterno/Corbett steal cage match.
  - BooMan on March 9, 2011 at 4:55 pm
    
    Sorry, I got carried away.
- Brendan Skwire on March 9, 2011 at 4:28 pm
  
  I’d prefer pouring him a glass of fracking water and then refusing to help him because he’s got a pre-existing condition.
- Brendan Skwire on March 9, 2011 at 4:32 pm
  
  Penn State’s economic impact on PA.
  
  Corbett wants to cut off the nose to spite the face.
  - BooMan on March 9, 2011 at 4:51 pm
    
    We should hire a Lincoln impersonator to follow him around weeping and wailing.

Stooleo on March 9, 2011 at 1:56 pm

Hey Booman OT But David Broder has died.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/david-broder-longtime-political-reporter-dies/?hp

BooMan on March 9, 2011 at 2:14 pm

I’m sorry for his loss, and my sympathies go out to his friends, colleagues, and family. He was an icon. I think a lot of his work over the last decade was horrid crap, but I also found some of his earlier work very valuable. I particularly liked his book with Haynes Johnson, The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point.

In this remarkable book, two of America’s best-known journalists use their unparalleled access to the major players to examine The System, specifically as it operated during the ferocious battle over the Clinton effort to provide universal health insurance for Americans – and they come to some startling conclusions about America’s future. From the beginning of the struggle, Johnson and Broder gained the confidence of more than one hundred of the participants, including the President and the First Lady; key congressional leaders like Bob Dole, Newt Gingrich, Ted Kennedy, and George Mitchell; the many competing special interests; and, outside the Beltway, ordinary citizens and workers on the battlefront of medical care. The authors have written a brilliant chronicle of the battle – of lost opportunities in the White House and of the savage determination and cunning tactics of the Gingrich forces, who plotted secretly for more than a year in advance to kill health care reform in an attempt to regain control of Congress and lead a conservative Republican Revolution that would fundamentally alter American government, privatize public function, and dismantle progressive programs and policies established over the last sixty years. Filled with stunning disclosures about the President and his supporters and adversaries, The System is an extraordinary portrait of democracy under siege, providing one of the most candid looks at American politics and government ever written. It is a book of vital importance to every American and is certain to become a classic in years to come.

I can’t say enough good things about the quality of that research and the book is must-reading for anyone who wants to understand how big bills move (or don’t move) through Congress.
- Brendan Skwire on March 9, 2011 at 4:30 pm
  
  broder’s the same guy who bitched the clinton trashed the place, and it wasn’t his place.
  
  the book may be good, but I’d have some serious doubts about the honesty of at least one of the writers.
  - BooMan on March 9, 2011 at 4:54 pm
    
    Something happened to him in the late 1990’s. I think he might have been the most offended man in America that a man like Bill Clinton got elected. I don’t think it was his politics at all. It was his pedigree and low character. Broder was nothing if not a snob. And I think post-blow job, his politics just drifted right and took his last shred of integrity with it. It was always a mystery how Broder morphed from someone who didn’t display much political preference to a winger.

Bazooka Joe on March 9, 2011 at 3:16 pm

Fucking Republicans. Fucking, fucking Republicans…

Somebody should primary Obama from the left just for the hell of it. At least then we’d have one night of actual debate and discussion of issues. I can’t even imagine what a freak show 2012 is going to be.

It’s a dark day for the republic when the political discourse has regressed to Eisenhower vs. Robert Taft, sixty years later. Except not even Robert Taft, Robert Taft’s psychotic, retarded half-brother. With some McCarthy thrown in.

Brendan Skwire on March 9, 2011 at 1:09 pm

Agreed. The GOP’s insane cuts are a gift to the democrats. Or they would be if the democrats had any kind of strategic sense, which most of them don’t.

Corbett’s freakshow is going to go over like a turd in the swimming pool. I’m beginning to think he’s not too bright either, and probably a good candidate for Santorum’s running mate (although Mr. Popularity Scott Walker’s my favorite there).
- BooMan on March 9, 2011 at 2:18 pm
  
  I say Nittany, you say Lion.
  
  Nittany…
  
  Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed state budget would move Penn State “substantially” toward privatization and signal “near-total abandonment” of public higher education in Pennsylvania, university President Graham Spanier said Wednesday.
  
  “Public higher education is not just a private good. It is a public good that benefits all society,” Spanier said in a 55-minute press conference at the Outreach Building at University Park.
  
  Spanier opened in part by declaring that “Abraham Lincoln is weeping today,” a reference to the Morrill Act of 1862. The act, signed by then-President Lincoln, fostered the creation of land-grant institutions — including Penn State — to expand the availability to higher education for the non-elite.
  
  Maybe Joe Paterno can travel to Harrisburg and punch Corbett in the face.
  - Phil Perspective on March 9, 2011 at 2:58 pm
    
    Maybe Joe Paterno can travel to Harrisburg and punch Corbett in the face.
    
    Such vitriol, Boo!! Anyway, I bet you could guess who I’d take in a Paterno/Corbett steal cage match.
    - BooMan on March 9, 2011 at 4:55 pm
      
      Sorry, I got carried away.
  - Brendan Skwire on March 9, 2011 at 4:28 pm
    
    I’d prefer pouring him a glass of fracking water and then refusing to help him because he’s got a pre-existing condition.
  - Brendan Skwire on March 9, 2011 at 4:32 pm
    
    Penn State’s economic impact on PA.
    
    Corbett wants to cut off the nose to spite the face.
    - BooMan on March 9, 2011 at 4:51 pm
      
      We should hire a Lincoln impersonator to follow him around weeping and wailing.
Stooleo on March 9, 2011 at 1:56 pm

Hey Booman OT But David Broder has died.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/david-broder-longtime-political-reporter-dies/?hp
- BooMan on March 9, 2011 at 2:14 pm
  
  I’m sorry for his loss, and my sympathies go out to his friends, colleagues, and family. He was an icon. I think a lot of his work over the last decade was horrid crap, but I also found some of his earlier work very valuable. I particularly liked his book with Haynes Johnson, The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point.
  
  In this remarkable book, two of America’s best-known journalists use their unparalleled access to the major players to examine The System, specifically as it operated during the ferocious battle over the Clinton effort to provide universal health insurance for Americans – and they come to some startling conclusions about America’s future. From the beginning of the struggle, Johnson and Broder gained the confidence of more than one hundred of the participants, including the President and the First Lady; key congressional leaders like Bob Dole, Newt Gingrich, Ted Kennedy, and George Mitchell; the many competing special interests; and, outside the Beltway, ordinary citizens and workers on the battlefront of medical care. The authors have written a brilliant chronicle of the battle – of lost opportunities in the White House and of the savage determination and cunning tactics of the Gingrich forces, who plotted secretly for more than a year in advance to kill health care reform in an attempt to regain control of Congress and lead a conservative Republican Revolution that would fundamentally alter American government, privatize public function, and dismantle progressive programs and policies established over the last sixty years. Filled with stunning disclosures about the President and his supporters and adversaries, The System is an extraordinary portrait of democracy under siege, providing one of the most candid looks at American politics and government ever written. It is a book of vital importance to every American and is certain to become a classic in years to come.
  
  I can’t say enough good things about the quality of that research and the book is must-reading for anyone who wants to understand how big bills move (or don’t move) through Congress.
  - Brendan Skwire on March 9, 2011 at 4:30 pm
    
    broder’s the same guy who bitched the clinton trashed the place, and it wasn’t his place.
    
    the book may be good, but I’d have some serious doubts about the honesty of at least one of the writers.
    - BooMan on March 9, 2011 at 4:54 pm
      
      Something happened to him in the late 1990’s. I think he might have been the most offended man in America that a man like Bill Clinton got elected. I don’t think it was his politics at all. It was his pedigree and low character. Broder was nothing if not a snob. And I think post-blow job, his politics just drifted right and took his last shred of integrity with it. It was always a mystery how Broder morphed from someone who didn’t display much political preference to a winger.
Bazooka Joe on March 9, 2011 at 3:16 pm

Fucking Republicans. Fucking, fucking Republicans…

Somebody should primary Obama from the left just for the hell of it. At least then we’d have one night of actual debate and discussion of issues. I can’t even imagine what a freak show 2012 is going to be.

It’s a dark day for the republic when the political discourse has regressed to Eisenhower vs. Robert Taft, sixty years later. Except not even Robert Taft, Robert Taft’s psychotic, retarded half-brother. With some McCarthy thrown in.

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