Santorum braces for convention battle with Ron Paul

Rick Santorum plans to lead a strong pro-Romney effort at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., that can serve as a counterweight in case Representative Ron Paul and his supporters “are looking for a platform fight,” he said in an interview that was broadcast on Sunday.

Mr. Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, had sharp differences with Mitt Romney when both were seeking the presidential nomination, but since bowing out of the race, Mr. Santorum has thrown his support behind the presumptive nominee and has papered over their differences.

The same cannot be said of Mr. Paul, the Texas libertarian who is still technically a candidate and who will be bringing  more than 200 delegates to Tampa. Mr. Santorum, appearing on the ABC News program “This Week,” suggested that fireworks with the Paul group were a distinct possibility.

Asked about his own interest in influencing the Republican platform, Mr. Santorum said, “I like the platform that we have right now.”

He then added: “I’m concerned that Ron Paul and some of his supporters out there are looking for a platform fight. And I want to make sure that we have strong, principled conservatives there who stood with me in our primary fight to go there and counterbalance the effect of the Paul folks.”

Mr. Santorum, who often sparred with Mr. Paul in the Republican debates, did not elaborate on what shape a platform fight might take.

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Santorum Bows Out

Demonstrating a grasp of reality (not to mention good grace) which seems to elude the former Speaker of the House, Rick Sanatorium abandoned his quest for the presidency this afternoon.  In doing so he has brought a formal end to the battle for the GOP nomination that effectively ended last Tuesday when Governor Romney swept the Wisconsin, Maryland and DC primaries.  Now that this is over the question is who are the Libertarians nominating?

Santorum wins in Louisiana

Rick Santorum’s campaign netted a victory Saturday night in Louisiana, where he won that state’s GOP primary by a significant margin. The win sparks hope of a campaign rebound, following Santorum’s lopsided losses to Mitt Romney in the Illinois and Puerto Rico primaries.

The former Massachusetts governor finished second and Newt Gingrich third in Saturday's contest.

The political terrain in Louisiana was favorable to the former Pennsylvania senator. Saturday’s vote was limited to Republicans only, making the electorate more conservative.

Exit polls from Louisiana showed Santorum dominating with voters labeling themselves as "very conservative." He also fared very well with those identifying as born-again or evangelical Christian.

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Dismissing economics; Santorum vows to campaign on social conservative agenda

MOLINE, Ill. — Defying almost all conventional wisdom about the 2012 election, Rick Santorum said the race would not turn on the economy and so it wasn’t important if unemployment and growth rates rose or fell.

Seeking to sharply contrast himself with Mitt Romney, Mr. Santorum waved away economics as he went after his chief rival as insufficiently conservative in his core values.

“I don’t care what the unemployment rate’s going to be,” Mr. Santorum said on Monday, the day before the Illinois primary. “It doesn’t matter. My campaign doesn’t hinge on unemployment rates and growth rates. There’s something more foundational that’s going on here.”

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On Eve of Illinois Primary Romney Widens Lead

Several polls are showing former Governor Romney's lead in tomorrow's critical Illinois primary widening over Rick Santorum. The former US Senator from Pennsylvania is Romney's only remaining serious challenger. Santorum's campaign has largely conceded that they have little hope of gaining the necessary number of delegates to nail down the nomination before the August national convention in Tampa Florida. Their current objective is to deny Romney enough delegates to prevent him from being nominated on the first ballot and hope for a brokered convention. At present Romney has slightly more than twice the number of delegates as all of his challengers combined and slightly less than half the number needed to secure the nomination (1144). The mathematical wall however is daunting and Romney will likely be able to count on the support of so called super delegates who are usually loyal party establishment types. If Romney wins Illinois decisively the odds of Santorum being able to force the nomination fight on to the convention floor will be greatly reduced.

The Case for Crazy: What the GOP Would Learn by Picking Rick Santorum

A cleansing bout of craziness in 2012 could be just what the GOP needs.

I’m talking about a nominee so far to the right that conservative populists get their fondest wish—and the Republican Party is forced to learn from the result. Namely, that there is such a thing as too extreme.

The dangerous groupthink delusion being pushed in conservative circles over the last few years is that ideological purity and electability are one and the same. It is an idea more rooted in faith than reason.

If Mitt Romney does finally wrestle the nomination to the ground, and then loses to Obama, conservatives will blame the loss on his alleged moderation. The right wing take-away will be to try to nominate a true ideologue in 2016.

But if someone like Rick Santorum gets the nomination in an upset, the party faithful will get to experience the adrenaline rush of going off a cliff together, like Thelma and Louise—elation followed by an electoral thud.

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HT: Blog reader Sophocles

Santorum vows to enforce obscenity laws

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL -- Rick Santorum accused President Barack Obama of not enforcing the country's obscenity laws and said Friday that as chief executive he would crack down on illegal pornography.

Santorum found himself answering pornography questions during a stop at an Italian restaurant here after the discovery of a statement posted in his campaign website in which he asserts that "America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography." Recent reporting has shed light on the letter in which the former Pennsylvania senator vowed to "vigorously enforce" all the country's obscenity laws, though he said the statement was posted three weeks ago.

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Santorum Wins Mississippi and Alabama in Blow to Romney

Rick Santorum has won Republican primaries in Mississippi and Alabama, exit polls and vote tallies show--a surprising Deep South sweep that signals Santorum is consolidating support among the party’s conservatives.

Both of the wins were narrow: just a few points separated Santorum from rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. The larger lesson of the night was that this long-running primary--far from leading the party to unite behind a favorite--has left Republicans divided stubbornly into thirds.

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Santorum wins Kansas

WICHITA, Kan. — Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum has won the Kansas Republican caucuses, the Associated Press projects, giving his campaign a boost as he seeks to make the case for a one-on-one contest against former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination.

With 76 percent of precincts reporting, Santorum was taking 53 percent in this rural Midwestern state that in many ways is tailor-made for him. The former senator has made his conservative views on social issues a focal point in his bid to win the GOP nod.

Romney was running second with 17 percent; former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) was in third place with 16 percent, and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who like Santorum had been campaigning hard in the state in recent days, was in fourth place with 13 percent.

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Alabama and Mississippi may be last good chance to stop Romney

For Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, the Deep South primaries in Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday will be a race for conservative primacy in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination. Unless one of them decisively puts the other away, however, Mitt Romney could be the big winner no matter where he finishes.

While Romney, the establishment front-runner, is counting on a growing sense of inevitability that he will be the nominee, Alabama and Mississippi are two of the last, best chances for Santorum and Gingrich to make their case against each other.

In temperament and tone, Ging­rich has an easier sell in the South: He can “talk Southern” in a way that Santorum can’t. But his personal baggage — a history of marital infidelity and two failed marriages — could be a significant stumbling block among the conservative, family-values voters who make up a large part of the two states’ electorates.

This is particularly true when that record is held up against Santorum’s personal story as a devoted husband and father of seven.

Gingrich has tried to cast Santorum as a bit player in the 1990s Republican revolution that Gingrich led, and in a region where unions are deeply unpopular, the Gingrich campaign has tried to cast Santorum as a pawn of big labor.

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Romney holds on in Michigan

It was probably closer than Mitt Romney would have liked. But he did win in Michigan tonight, and he did so by a wide enough margin that it can't be called a statistical tie.  Ron Paul came in 3rd with about 12% and Newt Gingrich finished in the cellar with only about 7% of the vote.  On a side note Arizona went for Romney by a wide margin.  The state was largely uncontested.

As polls close all eyes are on Michigan

Michigan is pretty close to a "must win" state for Mitt Romney.  It is his native state and one where his father was a very popular governor.  If he loses there in the wake of his weak showings in the last four primary/caucus contests it would be hugely embarrassing.  Further it would almost certainly call into question his status as the frontrunner and the nominee presumptive of the Republican Party.  In short, if Romney loses Michigan it could throw the entire primary season into chaos.

The most recent polls taken before voting began showed Romney with a very slight lead over his rival Rick Santorum.  But that lead is well within the margin of error and from a statistical perspective amounts to a tie.

Santorum wins three states in major upset

DENVER — Rick Santorum had a breakthrough night Tuesday, winning GOP presidential contests in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado, all of which is expected to breathe life into his struggling campaign and slow Mitt Romney’s march to the Republican presidential nomination.

The Santorum triumphs promise to, at least temporarily, alter the face of the campaign going into the crucial “Super Tuesday” contests, as the caustic tone of the primaries is expected to continue and intensify. Romney and his allies have signaled that they will use their financial advantage to launch stepped-up attacks on Santorum and on former House speaker Newt Gingrich, the other main challenger.

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Santorum Stuns Romney

The results are still coming in but as of this writing former US Senator Rick Santorum seems to have thrown yet another wrench into the GOP primary season.  Santorum has won Missouri and appears poised to win in both Colorado and Minnesota by decisive margins.  Making matters even worse for the presumptive frontrunner Mitt Romney is that he is at present posting 3rd place in two states, Minnesota behind Ron Paul, and Colorado where Gingrich holds a very narrow lead.

Whatever other indictments I may throw at the Republicans I can't accuse them of staging a boring primary season.

Iowa Final Tally: Romney Edges Santorum By 8 Votes

This one is going in the history books.  And though I fiercely disagree with Rick Santorum's politics, I am obliged to tip my hat to the man who campaigned for months across the state in a rented pickup truck, usually with a staff of one, knocking on almost every door and talking to anyone who would give him a minute of their time. To essentially come back from near political oblivion and tie for first in the Iowa Caucuses on a shoestring budget with zero media coverage was nothing less than an epic feat of great politics.