You've been around here for how long? Clearly not long enough.
I've come and gone for quite a few years. Barring the Santorum man-crush, I've generally found you to be level-headed.
I don't say that Santorum is favored. I don't think he is likely to win the nomination. I've said this time and time again but because it doesn't fit the joke that Phil is a blind Santorum supporter who thinks he'll win everything, it is ignored.
I'm not going to accept "analysis" that states how horribly unpopular Santorum is in his home state then concludes that he's doing so well because it's his home state! If anything, if he's so unpopular, this being his home state works against him because people are very familiar with him! That's what I'm rejecting here. That isn't "warped fantasy land." I'm not dismissing analysis that says Santorum won't win the nomination and/or the General; I'm dismissing idiocy from one particular poster who is using conflicting arguments to prove one point.
Santorum is relatively unpopular in his home state, compared to a number of candidates in their home states. Paul is similar in TX, but he's much better than MOE nationally, because he's a national candidate. If Santorum can't scrape together even 2nd place primary polling in PA, what's his path nationally? It's not that he's "unpopular" -- it's that he's known and still can't beat 14% in a primary poll in his own state. He's a conservative that is simply not the sort that most in the GOP identify with today. I'd say the same with Paul -- but he has a historical timeliness, and again, the national presence, to overcome some of that. And he's much less poisonous in a general than Santorum. There is just no rational way to project Santorum winning against Obama, barring an epic collapse.
And, yes, you attacked his credibility. In this case, it's the same as his electability. You're saying that his support is so microscopic that, in terms of his chances of winning, he isn't credible.
Semantics, but fine, I'll let you have that one, as it's not material to my point. Yes, he is not credible from an electoral perspective. At all. He's a niche candidate for a GOP that doesn't exist anymore. All Obama has to do is just keep saying "He equates homosexuality with pedophilia and bestiality...what a hateful man...I'm a uniter, not a divider" and he wins, even if he burns the country to ground from now to November 2012.
