So I guess I better start off this week’s blog by thanking Rick Santorum, not so much a genuine ‘thanks’, but a sarcastic ‘thanks’, ‘thanks Rick Santorum for winning in Missouri, Minnesota & Colorado!’, I had to change my original title for this week’s blog and it’s entire content because of the sweater vest king’s triple win. Originally it was going to be ‘Viva Las Mitt’ which I thought was pretty damn good, it had a nice ring to it, and of course it would be about Mitt’s win in Nevada, but NO, ol’ sweater vest Rick Santorum had to ruin it!
In fact, you know what, we’re going to have some ‘Viva Las Mitt’ in here! Last Sunday was a good day in the Romney household, he completely blitzed Nevada and finished with a giant 48% of the vote, twice more than that chubby chaser Newt Gingrich who got a measly 23%. Another thing pleasing Romney, and his many, many sons, was that the exit polls showed Newt’s support seemed to be falling away among conservatives, evangelicals and Tea Party crazies, these supporters who had previously grabbed him a victory in South Carolina were now firmly in Romney country. This trend continued this week with pretty crappy performances in the Colorado & Minnesota caucuses, in which he finished 3rd & 4th, oh and also a default last place finish in the Missouri Primary, which wasn’t a Primary, confusing, because he didn’t even register in time for it!
So what started badly on Sunday for Newt, ended in a car crash of a result on Tuesday, unfortunately however, his campaign is far from over; he has vowed to stay on at least until Super Tuesday in March where he looks set to do a bit better than previously. In contrast, ol’Mitt was on something of a roll, after knocking both Florida & Nevada out of the park in quick succession, he was widely expected to do well in the three contests this week, apparently the Coloradan, Missourian & Minnesotan (I can’t believe these are actually words for people from these states) voters didn’t read the Romney script!
Before we go any further I have to admit that I had no idea where Minnesota or Missouri actually were, but then I found that the Missouri Primary wasn’t a ‘real primary’, apparently they have the official one in a couple of months, so I wasn’t too bothered about that one. So now I just don’t know where Minnesota is, which I think is ok, it’s one of those states that you don’t really hear about, no offence to those Minnesotans out there, I’m sure it’s lovely. Now to move on before I get hate mail from Minnesota, I already knew a bit about Colorado (Go Broncos! Tebow!) and personally I thought Romney was a shoo-in for both of the aforementioned states, after all in 2008 he won the Minnesota Caucus by a fairly wide margin. This didn’t quite go to plan; the Santorum surge seems to have risen from the ashes in Nevada, the exit polls seemed to show a slightly more anti-Mitt edge than the results reflected, interestingly four out of ten Republican voters said they were principally focused on getting Obama out of the White house, suggesting that some voters are willing to compromise some of their ideological beliefs in to back the man they best believe can get that comfy seat in the oval office, so instead of a vote for Mitt, it’s more of a vote for anyone whose not a Democrat.
Personally I think this is the case with Rick Santorum’s triple wins, instead of actually voting for a candidate the voters believe in, they are just voting for an alternative to Mitt Romney or an alternative to Barack Obama. While this of course great news for ol’Rick and more importantly his array of sweater vests, it’s bad news for the Republican party, their vote is becoming increasingly split between three candidates and this leaves the door open for Obama to walk straight back into the White house. If we’re talking about ‘divide & conquer’, the Republicans are dividing themselves making it much easier for the Democrats to conquer later in the year. Ol’Mitt’s campaign is suddenly significantly weaker, he was hoping to spend February attacking Obama, now he’s spending February attacking Santorum, who can probably expect the same negative ad bombardment that Newt Gingrich has been experiencing the last couple of weeks. Santorum, who has so far been fighting on the caucus and primary front on a very strict budget, has said that the last fortnight has been the best in terms of fundraising, as the results came in tuesday night it was reported he received $250,000 in online donations alone, this really can only mean two things, you’ll be seeing more Santorum and you’ll be seeing more sweater vests!
Politicin' 
gordoncstewart
/ February 10, 2012Two things to share Re: Santorum’s Minnesota victory.
1) Same-sex marriage is front and center on the Minnesota political agenda. The Republican legislature has placed a referndum on the November, 2012 ballot that would amend the Minnesota State Constitution to restrict “marriage” to one man and one woman. The Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has endorsed the proposed amendment, instructing local Roman Catholic parishes to organize advocacy committees for its passage, and warning diocesan priests not to dissent publically under threat of suspension. See my post “The Shadow of the Grand Inquisitor”: http://gordoncstewart.com/2012/01/26/the-shadow-of-the-grand-inquisitor/ Santorum is a conservative Catholic who is now in the limelight also for his objection to an Obama Administration health care ruling that would require dissemination of contraceptives, which he views as infringing on tFirst Amendment rights re: religion.
2) In Carver County, MN where I now live, last Tuesday’s Republican Caucus overwhelmingly favored Santorum. Here are the figures for Carver County as posted in the Feb. 9, 2012 Chaska Herald: Santorum (306); Ron Paul (177); Romney (172); Gingrich (111).
Politicin'
/ February 23, 2012Wow, Gordon thanks very much for this. How do you think the ballot is likely to go In November, do you think the good people of Minnesota will legalise gay marriage?
Secondly, thanks again for putting down the caucus figures from your local county, did you vote?
gordoncstewart
/ February 24, 2012I wish I had a crystal ball. I really don’t know. The question is before Minnesota voters in November in the form of a referundum to amend the Minnesota
state constitution to define “marriage” as between one man and one woman, i.e. AGAINST gay marriage.. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis has declared the church’s position in favor of the proposed amendment My priest friends and lay Catholic friends are not in agreement, but the Archdiocese is very ogranized and pushing hard. The ELCA here just took a position against the proposed amendment. The evangelical and fundamentalis church communions will support the amendment. Liberal and progressive communions who favor non-discriminatory marriage are organizing against passage of the referendum. And, my guess is that the Jewish community and non-churched people will vote heavily against the amendment. On the caucus, yes, i was there. It’s always interesting!
Politicin'
/ February 24, 2012Well, it sounds like the amendment has a lot of support then, I saw today that they’ve voted in favour of legalising gay marriage in Maryland, so do you think that could have some sort of sway in Minnesota? – I know the two states aren’t near each other, but I guess it could sway some opinion later in November.
I would love to be at a caucus! The excitement!
Katrina
/ February 11, 2012You really hit the nail on the head with the idea the Republicans just want Obama out. The issue that concerns me is, since that triple win, Santorum has made some very anti-American, anti-freedom, almost Hitler type comments about the level of control he believes the American Government should have in the day to day lives of our people. Honestly, if he wins in November and even thinks he can get away with some of his ideas, we will probably see a new American Revolution, and possibly internal wars. So, I’ll just go live in Canada or possible Great Britain, who knows, 🙂
Politicin'
/ February 23, 2012Katrina if Santorum does get the nomination, which I doubt, come over to Britain we love Americans!
Katrina
/ February 25, 2012Thanks, I’ve often thought if we ended up with the wrong president, I’d just move to another country, so now I have an official invitation, thanks