I give Santorum credit

[Renew Deal]

He's got no money. He's running against a monied candidate. He's running against a guy with a home field advantage (Gingrich). He's been abused by Romney and his Super-Pac and he won.

Santorum doesn't deserve all the credit. Romney is a flawed candidate. He has no concept of being a normal person. "Cheesy grits!" Are you kidding me? I'm from NY. I've had "Cheese Grits" because I wanted to and I like them. Voters are smart enough to pick up on Romney's inauthenticity. I wish Obama gets to run against this Frankenstein fraud of a candidate.

But in the end winning counts, and Santorum has done it again against terrible odds.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. ...credit only for tapping into some of the scariest parts of our society for his votes.

And that's really not giving credit. It's rather chilling, really.

[lumpy]

2. Well said. Thanks

nt

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. The country under Santorum would be indescribable for any sane, decent human being.

[freshwest]

15. +1,000

[Aerows]

30. Everyone knows this that has a grain of sense

And it makes sense for Democrats to be a Santorum cheering squad. He'll get annihilated in the general, which is exactly what Democrats (and sane Republicans) should want. Romney can't win, anyway, but demoralizing him and his supporters just dilutes Republican enthusiasm, which means they sit at home in November. That's great for local and state Democratic candidates.

[LisaL]

31. What in the world makes you think Santorum will get annhilated in general?

What's the evidence of that?

[Aerows]

33. He's so far run on social issues

Once corruption gets brought up, combined with his social positions, he's toast.

Not to mention that Democratic voices have not been heard in the Republican primary, because they can't figure out who they dislike less. When the general populous chooses, it's a whole different ball game, and a whole different set of values on display.

[LisaL]

34. Well don't be so sure. Bush got elected twice.

[NRaleighLiberal]

37. Bush was a complete idiot, but no where near as hard core holy roller right wing as Sanitarium.

[LisaL]

39. And how does that make Santorum less likely to win?

Bush couldn't put two words together and Santorum can actually talk.

[Aerows]

40. If you are living in the right-wing echo chamber

He can.

If you are living in reality he has no chance. It's going to be a brokered convention, in any case, and they have less chance to hit Obama, and more chances to deject Republicans. All of that adds up to solid Democratic wins.

Historically, who was the last candidate to win in a brokered convention? FDR. 1932, and Democrats have a different voting requirement than Republican brokered conventions. Number of Republicans that win after a brokered convention? ...

[LisaL]

41. I am living in reality.

Anything can happen from now until the election. I can see that some people convinced themselves that Santorum is unelectable but where is the evidence to support that idea?

[LisaL]

7. Chilling indeed.

[Renew Deal]

9. That's a good point

His support come from being the craziest guy in the insane asylum.

[Marie Marie]

4. Smug as he is in his extremists beliefs, I don't think that even he thought he would get this far.

Just shows you two things: Republicans really don't want Romney and the Republican base is crazier than I thought. Oh, and they all really hate Balack Obama.

[Renew Deal]

10. I think we need Obama to run against the craziest they got

I think it will beat the crazies back for a while.

[newspeak]

38. well, at least with santorum

we can see how many americans have finally gone down the rabbit hole. It might be scary just seeing how many americans want the christians answer to SA.

[RZM]

5. Santorum's about to run out of gas

He's not competitive in a whole lot of places with a whole lot of delegates. He'll do well in the south and in parts of the midwest, but that's about it. The NE and West Coast will go for Romney. And those places are pretty delegate rich.

I'm less impressed by his performance than you are. I don't think he's really 'won' many primaries. Gingrich and Romney have lost them because they are pretty flawed.

You could actually make an argument that Santorum is highly flawed as well. He's got no money and he's got positions that turn off a whole lot of peope. Mitt may be a loser, but he's not as polarizing a figure. I actually think that in terms of flaws, he's in the middle. Gingrich is most flawed, Santorum second, Romney third. And wouldn't you know it, I predict the least flawed candidate will get the nomination.

[flamingdem]

6. exactly

but froth on Ricky.

[annabanana]

8. The danger in Santorum is this. If you are among

the great Unengaged.. that is, the vast majority of Americans, and all you see of Santorum is speeches like his speech tonight, he looks and sounds so nice! He has a nice looking family, He clearly believes what he's saying.

With the right handlers and bundles of corporate money he could do well.

Most people have NO FUCKING IDEA how batshit crazy this guy's ideas are.

[RZM]

12. I doubt it. People are both more and less stupid than most people think

They don't know shit, but they are also surprisingly capable of discerning what public figures are all about. And they've got Santorum's number. He's not going to be the nominee. I'd bet the farm on that.

[Renew Deal]

13. People will get educated

Especially young people that find out Santorum has oppresive views when it comes to gays, women, etc. And then there's the war mongering and no serious policies.

[LisaL]

32. Yea, right.

[Renew Deal]

11. You make a lot of good points.

The question is how far will Romney be able to drive those margins. It's not about Santorum getting to 1144. It's about Romney NOT getting to 1144.

[RZM]

14. I think he'll probably get there

I'll admit I haven't crunched the numbers like some of the hardcore folks have. But I think he'll make it. Santorum and Gingrich simply don't cut it, even combined. Romney just barely cuts it. He'll limp across the finish line.

[Renew Deal]

16. And Ron Paul

He's got his own (small) haul of delegates.

[RZM]

17. Ron Paul isn't shit

If anything, it looks like he's already resigned to a Romney candidacy and has made a private deal with him. He won't stand in the way of a Romney winning. At best he'll be able to work a few promises into the platform and some backroom shit if Romney wins in November.

[Renew Deal]

20. He's got delegates

But otherwise I agree. It looks like he's in the bag for Romney.

[LisaL]

18. I don't think so.

If you do the math, that is, the likely outcome is that neither one of them gets enough votes.

[RZM]

19. I'll admit that I haven't done the math

But with Gingrich and Santorum splitting the anti-Romney vote? I just don't see them stopping him.

[LisaL]

35. He might not get to the number of delegates he needs because the three of them are

splitting the votes.

[Johonny]

21. I thought he had his own pocket billionaire

Foster Friess

[Renew Deal]

27. He does, but he's still getting outspent 5 or 6:1

I saw last night that Romney and his pack have spent $3.2 Million in Illinois. Santorum has spent $0.

[Aerows]

22. I said it before

Romney has NO chance in the Deep South. He's a Mormon, and evangelical Christians and Baptists won't vote before they will vote for him.

Inauthentic is the best way to describe Romney, which is why he has problems.

[B Calm]

23. Never underestimate the stupidity

of republicans. North or South, if their candidate has that magic R in front of their name, they'll vote for him!

[Aerows]

26. Romney won't get the nomination

In Texas or Louisiana, either. Both have a huge contingent of evangelical Christians and Baptists. I honestly think the convention is going to end up brokered. Romney will eventually get the nomination, I think, unless he does something incredibly stupid (which is always likely), but a lot of the evangelical voters are going to have issues voting for him.

We'll see as it plays out. The longer it drags out, the better

[KharmaTrain]

24. The Last Date Available...

The teabaggers and rushpublicans have been desperate to fall in love with someone. They're desperate for their next Raygun and each of the candidates in their clown car demolition derby has teased them into thinking he/she was the one. From Batshit Bachmann to Mindslip Perry to the Herminator to Noooooot...each time something happened...candidatus interuptus. Millard never got his chance at this dance...and the more he tried to crash the party the more people resent him. As the dance partners dropped away all that was left was little Ricky...and while he had warts and smells funny and no one took him seriously, he and Noooot are all there's left to dance with. Do you go with the old fart who always gave you the creeps (Noooooot) or the geek who had to have the car home by 10:30pm (Ricky)? So it's Ricky by a process of elimination but he can't shake Nooooot and the two have now turned into Millard's best friends...

[Mr.Turnip]

25. Santorum has proven himself to be a better politician then I thought.

He's absolutely insane but he knows how to play Politics far better than Romney does, honestly if it weren't for Romney's campaign and all the advisors and such within I think Romney would have crashed and burned under his own ineptitude months ago.

But it doesn't really matter because they are all incompetent compared to Obama!

[Renew Deal]

28. I agree with all of that.

[MineralMan]

29. I wouldn't loan the SOB a penny.

No credit for him...

[spanone]

36. i give no credit to theocrats...they are dangerous