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December 29, 2011 06:49 PM UTC

And Now, The "Santorum Surge"

  • 35 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

The Washington Post reports–not our choice of words, folks.

A Time-CNN poll released Wednesday put Romney at the front of the pack despite his decision to spend relatively little time in Iowa, where a conservative GOP electorate has resisted his candidacy. Romney had 25 percent support, compared with Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) at 22 percent and former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) at 15 percent. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), who was the front-runner just a month ago, trailed with 13 percent in the Time-CNN poll…

After months of being near the bottom of the standings, San­torum has surged, becoming the latest symbol of the Republican electorate’s continuing search for a satisfactory candidate. His new statewide radio ad, “Unite,” promotes his record on abortion and dubs him the “one consistent conservative” in the race.

In an interview Wednesday on CNN, Santorum said: “Polls change; convictions don’t. A lot of people are moving toward my position, trying to move toward the conservative primary.”

Comments

35 thoughts on “And Now, The “Santorum Surge”

  1. and I’m loving every minute of it. “NotRomney” sure is a fickle mistress.

    Hey A-GOP, you still like Romney’s chances against Obama? Because I’ll bet you – IF you’re willing to meet me in person and shake on it. (I will not be stiffed like MADCO.)

    1. In addition to the ahem, Santorum Surge (recommended solution: plunger, mop and some Lysol):

      USA Today notes that PPP asked a group of likely voters, not just Republicans, for their preferences in the caucus.

      The CNN/Time/ORC poll only surveyed registered Republican voters. A poll published Tuesday by Public Policy Polling included independents and Democrats – many who are expected to re-register as Republicans for the Iowa caucuses – showed Paul holding a slight lead over Romney.

      Who would Dems and Independents vote for?  Someone they actually want as a GOP President, or simply a spoiler?

      In the meantime, Michelle Bachman continues her downward spiral:

      Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann’s Iowa campaign chairman Kent Sorenson on Wednesday endorsed Ron Paul, one of her rivals in the Iowa Republican caucus race.

      .

      .

      .

      The turnabout is a major surprise with just six days remaining before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses. Sorenson, in fact, appeared at a Bachmann event earlier Wednesday afternoon.

      1. Crazy Michele said:  

        Kent Sorenson personally told me he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the Paul campaign,” Bachmann said in a hastily arranged news conference outside a Pizza Ranch in Boone, where she held her 11th campaign event of the day.

        “Kent campaigned with us earlier this afternoon and went immediately afterward to a Ron Paul event and announced he is changing teams,” Bachmann continued. “Kent said to me yesterday that ‘Everyone sells out in Iowa, why shouldn’t I?‘ then he told me he would stay with our campaign.”

        Both Sorenson, an Iowa state senator, btw and the Paul camp are denying the monetary aspect–as is Bachmann’s own campaign director.  One can only wonder if Michele got God’s voice confused with Sorenson’s.

        In any regard, Sorenson shot himself in the foot as far as his own political aspirations go.  Even if he didn’t get paid, Iowans are funny about things like loyalty.  

        Ain’t politics fun!

        1. … perhaps in four years, the candidates and the media will not spend quite as much time in what is essentially a marginal, non-representative backwater race?

          Sorensen may have shot himself in the foot by opportunistically abandoning a sinking campaign for the seeming frontrunner, Ron Paul (did he just now realize Bachmann’s penchant for MSU? — Really, he took a boatload of money to switch? Uh, huh).  But it seems to me the GOP “brand” has been tarnished even more by having a randomly changing “leader” in the polls.

            1. But seriously, the chatter about Iowa’s caucuses being past their expiration date is getting more attention:

              Can Ron Paul win the Republican presidential nomination? No. Can he win the Iowa caucuses? Sure.

              The larger question, then, isn’t what the party intends to do about Paul’s candidacy, which will wither as the nominating process unfolds, but rather, what the party intends to do about the Iowa caucuses.

              .

              .

              But a Paul victory would set a precedent that could change how Republicans perceive the caucuses themselves. It wouldn’t necessarily lead to a de jure change, but rather a de facto change – GOP presidential contenders would simply conclude, “Let’s focus our attention on New Hampshire on South Carolina, because those Iowans appear to be nuts.”

              A party county chair in Iowa told Politico, “My biggest fear is that the Republican Party nationally and a lot of states that want to be number one [in the nominating process] will simply point to his winning and say, ‘Iowa’s irrelevant.'”

              And that seems pretty likely.

              Ultimately, it’s the candidates that will determine whether they want to play in Iowa again in four years.  Especially if Romney does well with minimal investment and Paul wins, there will be little incentive to pay much attention to Iowa next time.

              1. have to be vitally important to Iowa’s economy. For their economy the more candidates the better. Campaign teams buying meals, motel rooms, newspaper ads and radio and TV ads all over the state

      1. How’s that Gingrich win you predicted turning out for you? Face it, you just aren’t very good at predicting. That’s why it’s strange that you do it all the time.

          1. but he has something else the religious right seems to prefer in their candidates. He’s a man. Also, he’s a white man.  No surprise that as religious righties abandon Newt they aren’t going to the little woman who submits to her husband but to the candidate who is the husband, as their racist and patriarchal natural order demands. You don’t think they were going to stick with the black guy or the female when push came to shove,? He may not be much but he is the right color and gender.

  2. Five more days is not enough to get to second place, and third place in already quirky Iowa won’t take him far, even if he manages that.

    Anyway, the spotlight would incinerate Santorum just as it has burned Gingrich, Bachman, Paul, and Perry, if it remained fixed on him for any length of time.

    Paul also seems better positions for a follow up placing in NH than Santorum.

    Yet, if Paul winds up as the anti-Romney, it is hard to see GOP voters nationwide picking him.

    1. Being against all those fun super patriotic wars of choice and refusing to  tell funny jokes about things like bombing Iran is going to be a major problem. I think a lot of his low info rightie supporters have no idea he’s as peacenik, where foreign policy is concerned, as any aging hippy, as all for “cutting and running” as any evil socialist Muslim loving Dem and as “soft on crime” as those liberals calling for an end to the failed drug war. They just think he’s anti-Washington establishment. They will certainly be made aware, though.  

  3. I called this over two weeks ago. I could see that the quiet man with a dog obsession was getting ready to push his way up the standings.

    Why?

    He is creepy enough for the far, far right (where is Gary Larson when you need him). He is not Morman. And, he is the “nice nephew” for those looking for a relative to vote for wanting to overlook he is probably gay.

    Future?

    For all the reasons of Iowa that shove him spike upward, those are the reasons his polls go soft for the rest of the country. He might take Louisiana only because they like a little kink in their politicians.That would be it for his penetration into the rest of the race.

  4. C’mon Rick!  You can do it.  Yes, right there Rick.  Oh buddy!!!  

    Was that the Rapture?  I thought I felt the planet move.  Oh, never mind, that was just Newton walking by.  

    Rick, sir, you alone can finish this.  No one else ever could.  

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