Regarding Rick Santorum

[Indy Texas]

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I'm not saying he spent the entire debate bringing social issues into the mix, but that he was willing to go where no other candidate really was, I think that's important.  If the other candidates all go ECONOMY ECONOMY ECONOMY I think there's an opening for Santorum to be able to appeal to a significant amount of republican voters by connecting fiscal and social problems. Speaking their language, as it were.

In all likelihood, the economy will be better in 2016 than it was in 2012. People will still be grumbling about the national debt, but people have always grumbled about it. If the ACA is still around by the primaries, it's never going away. Any discussion of it from then on will be about tinkering with it; instead of "Kill Obamacare!" the battle will focus on things like preventing abortions from being covered and making sure employers aren't required to offer coverage to same-sex partners or something.

There is definitely an opening for Rick Santorum to run as a social conservative - but not as a '90s era SoCon who goes on and on about school prayer and the immorality of Hollywood. If he runs as a social conservative who sees a more traditional family structure as aiding the economic situation of the working class, he could very well have an audience. If he doesn't harp on gay marriage, he could run as the sort of Republican that David Frum and Ross Douthat have been pining for since 2006-ish. If he's willing to bend his party's Randian, laissez-faire economic views, he may even find some sympathetic ears among those in the Democratic Party who are not part of Obama's "gentry coalition" of minorities and upscale whites.

[Indy Texas]

What was Santorum's line about kids going to college? Something unspeakable, right?

Something totally taken out of context. Per usual.

He said Obama was "a snob" for wanting everyone to go to college (even though Obama never said he wanted everyone to go to college).

[Indy Texas]

What was Santorum's line about kids going to college? Something unspeakable, right?

Something totally taken out of context. Per usual.

He said Obama was "a snob" for wanting everyone to go to college (even though Obama never said he wanted everyone to go to college).

And IIRC, Santorum has a BA, an MBA, and a JD, so.....

That right there is how his comments were taken ridiculously out of context. "Rick went to college! How could he say going to college is snobby?" Except he didn't say going to college is snobby. Either you people cannot follow simple arguments or you're totally disingenuous. I really can't tell these days.

Whether or not your statement is taken out of context doesn't really matter when your statement was a boldfaced lie. Obama has never said "everybody" needs to get a college degree. He has said that people should be expected to have some kind of post-secondary training to make them employable, whether that's a four-year college degree or an employer-based certification. If Rick Santorum were serious about improving the job prospects of the working-class white folks he is the patron saint of, he should be agreeing with the president. Do I think there is the possibility of an opening for Rick Santorum to win a few states in 2016? Yes. But in order to do that he's going to have to chuck the part of his persona that has him peddling resentment like it was corn dogs at the county fair.

[Indy Texas]

Phil, is the fact that Obama never said that, and Santorum was misrepresenting him, relevant?

Or is it ok because you can sort of make his statement defensible if you take it out of that context?

How about we do this: admit that it's wrong to make up/totally misrepresent comments by each individual?

It isn't suddenly justified to look at what Santorum said and a) lie about his remarks (Made up quote: "Going to college is snobby") and b) try to make him out to be a hypocrite by pointing out his advanced degrees. Arguably, his detractors have taken it a step further. You know, the usual.

Oh, and for the record, Rick Santorum (Supposed Satan - PA/VA) backtracked on his comments:

UPDATE: Santorum backtracked on this claim during the March 4, 2012, edition of Fox News Sunday after being pressed by host Chris Wallace, the Boston Globe reported. "I've read some columns where at least it was characterized that the president said, we should go to four-year colleges," Santorum said, adding, "If it was in error, then I agree with the president that we should have options for people to go to variety of different training options for them."

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/feb/27/rick-santorum/rick-santorum-calls-barack-obama-snob-wanting-ever/


It's probably time for the usual suspects here to do the same on their misrepresentation of Santorum's remarks. Don't worry: I'm not holding my breath.

Okay, let's go through this:

Santorum says..."President Obama wants everyone to go to college. What a snob."

Santorum means...President Obama is a snob for wanting everyone to go to college. Wanting everyone to go to college makes one a snob.

I would argue that you could call someone a snob for wanting every single person in society to have a four-year degree or higher. But you seem to be overlooking the fact that OBAMA NEVER SAID THAT.

What if a Democratic politician said, "[GOP Candidate X] says you're not really an American if you're not Christian. What a hateful bigot!"

Except the GOP candidate didn't actually say that. He made some blithe reference to "America's Judeo-Christian values."

Now, it's not unreasonable to call someone a bigot who thinks Christianity is a litmus test for being a good citizen. However, it is highly unreasonable and over the line to make that statement based on something that NO ONE EVER SAID.

So what if Santorum backtracked? Making a BS statement on the campaign trail and then later "clarifying" in a statement most people are never going to bother looking up on PolitiFact is like when a lawyer makes an inadmissible statement in court, the other lawyer objects and the judge tells the jury to disregard the remark. They can't disregard it. They already heard it.

Santorum makes an outlandish statement and then later on makes a non-apology for telling a blatant lie. That puts him slightly above Michele "Vaccines Cause Mental Retardation" Bachmann on the veracity scale, which is an embarrassing place to be.

Why can't you just admit it was a cheap shot?

[Indy Texas]

Now the whining has gotten even more pathetic. It's not good enough that Santorum backtracked and said he wouldn't have said it if he had it to do over. No, no, no. It's just like your courtroom analogy. Definitely just as serious!




Still waiting on how all of this justifies totally making up something Santorum said and calling him a hypocrite. Again, not holding my breath. Keep avoiding that.

When did I make up something Santorum said and call him a hypocrite? Find the place in this thread where I made up something Santorum said and called him a hypocrite. I did not do either one of those things and no one else here did either.

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Notice he can't name a specific place where he read this and that he won't even have the decency to admit that he was wrong. But, oh, yes, poor Saint Rick. All those mean, snooty smart people with their four-year college degrees looking down their noses at him and the "real" people out in Bumf**k, Central Pennsylvania.