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Why Obama Will Embrace the 99 Percent
Doug Mills/The New York Times
By NATE SILVER
Published: February 15, 2012
¶ The last time I considered Barack Obama’s re-election chances in this magazine, in mid-November, things were looking pretty bleak for the president. The statistical model I used measured three key factors — a president’s approval rating, economic growth and the ideological orientation of his opponent — and taken together, they showed that Obama had become a slight underdog to win re-election.
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¶ Three months later, his position is much stronger.
¶ In January, 243,000 jobs were created. The number surprised investors and economists, but it was part of a stream of solid economic data: over the last few months, consumer confidence has gone up, Americans have spent more on big-ticket items like cars and there is even evidence that the housing market has begun to rebound. Before the job numbers came out, most economists were expecting around 2.5 percent G.D.P. growth this year. Those forecasts are liable to be revised upward now, perhaps to about 3 percent.
¶ Americans seem to have noticed the change. By early February, Obama’s approval rating had climbed to 49 percent in the Real Clear Politics average, a six-point improvement from three months earlier. Although it’s not a terrific approval rating, it may be enough to get Obama another term. In 2004, George W. Bush won a narrow victory with essentially identical metrics: G.D.P. growth of 2.9 percent and an approval rating of about 48 percent on Election Day.
¶ Still, Obama’s position isn’t solid enough for him to beat just anybody. Bush benefited from running against a middling opponent like John Kerry, against whom he was able to squeeze every ounce out of his approval rating.
¶ The model I created evaluates the strength of the opposition candidate by considering his ideology on a left-to-right scale. Candidates who are closer to the center have historically done better than those closer to the wings. (I’ve updated the model’s measure of ideology to account for new data.)
¶ Obama’s most likely Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, continues to rate as a “generic Republican.” In fact, he now scores at exactly 50 on the 100-point scale from centrist to extremist. That means an election against Romney, like Bush’s against Kerry, would mostly be dictated by the fundamentals of the economy and by evaluations of Obama’s job performance. With 2.5 percent G.D.P. growth from now through November, Obama would be a 60 percent favorite to win the popular vote.
¶ The popular vote is one thing, however. The Electoral College is another — and Romney could have more vulnerabilities there.
¶ In recent weeks, Obama has taken a more populist approach (just read the transcript of his State of the Union address). The strategy has induced more howls than usual from Republicans about “class warfare,” but the White House has clearly studied the numbers. In the Republican primaries, Romney has had trouble winning the loyalty of working-class voters, especially in the Midwest. And recent polls suggest that Romney, who has a penchant for making intemperate comments that draw attention to his wealth, could struggle among that group in the general election as well.
¶ So let’s conduct a thought experiment. Suppose that against Romney, Obama does 10 points better among white voters whose households make less than $50,000 per year. The trade-off is that he does 10 points worse among whites making $100,000 or more and 15 points worse among whites making at least $200,000.
¶ In terms of the popular vote, this would almost exactly balance out. The effect would be more substantial, however, in individual states.
¶ In wealthy Virginia, Obama would lose a net of 2.5 percentage points to Romney under these rules, according to the demographics from the 2008 exit poll there. He would also be harmed by 2.7 points in Colorado. And Romney would have a chance of putting New Jersey into play, because he would gain four full points there. (The Chris-Christie-for-V.P. train will be departing from Platform 1.)
¶ Moreover, Obama would have relatively few states that he might flip to blue. Missouri is one exception: the 3.9-point boost he would see there outweighs his narrow margin of defeat in 2008. Obama would also gain 5.8 points in Montana, which would have been enough for him to beat John McCain.
¶ But Obama doesn’t need to win many new states. His challenge will be in holding the ones that might turn red. And pursuing a populist strategy against Romney could put him at a big advantage.
¶ Consider the Midwest. By trading votes among wealthy whites for more among working-class ones, Obama would bolster his margins in Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan. Indiana, a state that otherwise looks like a very tough hold for Obama, also contains a high percentage of working-class whites, and he could gain a few points there.
¶ His chances of winning North Carolina, where he sneaked by with fewer than 15,000 votes last time, would go up as well. The same goes for the 2nd congressional district in Nebraska, and Oregon and Maine, two states that are less upscale than their coastal brethren and that have been competitive in the past, would be easier holds.
¶ Conversely, none of the 22 states that John McCain carried in 2008 would be bolstered meaningfully under this situation. Most of those states are securely Republican to begin with; the few exceptions, like Georgia and Arizona, contain about as many working-class whites as wealthy ones.
¶ All told, there are 101 electoral votes in swing states that Obama could either put into play or make more secure under the populist paradigm — well more than the 36 he might lose among Virginia, Colorado and New Jersey.
¶ The reason for the imbalance is that most wealthy whites do not live in swing states but in enclaves that the sociologist Charles Murray calls SuperZIPs. Most of these are in states like New York, California, Maryland and Massachusetts that are very far from being competitive. (There are also a significant number of SuperZIPs in the Dallas and Houston metro areas in Texas, but Obama probably wasn’t going to win the Lone Star State anyway.)
¶ But what if Rick Santorum were to steal the Republican nomination away from Romney? After his sweep of the contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri on Feb. 7, he looks like a more viable candidate — one who doesn’t seem as beholden to the 1 percent as Romney does. He has been successful at making Obama’s supposed elitism a theme of his campaign. And he is more conservative on social policy than on fiscal policy, which runs against the consensus view in the Virginia and New Jersey suburbs but puts him in line with the preferences of middle-income voters in the center of the country.
¶ Still, Santorum, who rates as a 68 on the ideology scale (the same as a less-plausible nominee, Newt Gingrich), would probably be weaker than Romney in the popular vote. According to the model, Obama would be a 77 percent favorite to win the popular vote against Santorum given 2.5 percent G.D.P. growth.
¶ Republicans wouldn’t care about that, however, if Santorum carried Ohio and Michigan — and perhaps even his home state, Pennsylvania — places where economic concerns tend to take precedence. Under these conditions, in fact, Republicans might be able to win the Electoral College while losing the popular vote.
¶ I am not quite ready to suggest that Santorum would be a better nominee than Romney. But the electability gap between the two is closer than it might appear because of the way Santorum’s strengths could play in the Electoral College. At the very least, he might force a reset of the White House’s strategy — from one focused on the 99 percent to one more intent on critiquing Santorum’s positions on social issues.
¶ Whichever strategy the Obama folks settle on, though, they’ll be acting from a place of relative strength — so long as the economic numbers remain decent. If the economy tips backward toward recession because of the situation in Europe or tensions in the Middle East, Obama would go right back to being an underdog against either Romney or Santorum.
¶ So, who wants to bet on there being nine months of no bad news?
¶Nate Silver runs the FiveThirtyEight blog. He is working on a book about forecasting and prediction.
A version of this article appeared in print on February 19, 2012, on page MM44 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: Here Comes Class Warfare.
For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage
Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
Amber Strader, of Lorain, Ohio, described her pregnancies as largely unplanned, a byproduct of relationships lacking commitment. More Photos »By JASON DePARLE and SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: February 17, 2012
LORAIN, Ohio — It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal. After steadily rising for five decades, the share of children born to unmarried women has crossed a threshold: more than half of births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage.
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Teresa Fragoso takes classes and works at a Lorain, Ohio, bar, where she took her son one day when she could not find a sitter. More Photos »Among mothers of all ages, a majority — 59 percent in 2009 — are married when they have children. But the surge of births outside marriage among younger women — nearly two-thirds of children in the United States are born to mothers under 30 — is both a symbol of the transforming family and a hint of coming generational change.
One group still largely resists the trend: college graduates, who overwhelmingly marry before having children. That is turning family structure into a new class divide, with the economic and social rewards of marriage increasingly reserved for people with the most education.
“Marriage has become a luxury good,” said Frank Furstenberg, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
The shift is affecting children’s lives. Researchers have consistently found that children born outside marriage face elevated risks of falling into poverty, failing in school or suffering emotional and behavioral problems.
The forces rearranging the family are as diverse as globalization and the pill. Liberal analysts argue that shrinking paychecks have thinned the ranks of marriageable men, while conservatives often say that the sexual revolution reduced the incentive to wed and that safety net programs discourage marriage.
Here in Lorain, a blue-collar town west of Cleveland where the decline of the married two-parent family has been especially steep, dozens of interviews with young parents suggest that both sides have a point.
Over the past generation, Lorain lost most of two steel mills, a shipyard and a Ford factory, diminishing the supply of jobs that let blue-collar workers raise middle-class families. More women went to work, making marriage less of a financial necessity for them. Living together became routine, and single motherhood lost the stigma that once sent couples rushing to the altar. Women here often describe marriage as a sign of having arrived rather than a way to get there.
Meanwhile, children happen.
Amber Strader, 27, was in an on-and-off relationship with a clerk at Sears a few years ago when she found herself pregnant. A former nursing student who now tends bar, Ms. Strader said her boyfriend was so dependent that she had to buy his cigarettes. Marrying him never entered her mind. “It was like living with another kid,” she said.
When a second child, with a new boyfriend, followed three years later — her birth control failed, she said — her boyfriend, a part-time house painter, was reluctant to wed.
Ms. Strader likes the idea of marriage; she keeps her parents’ wedding photo on her kitchen wall and says her boyfriend is a good father. But for now marriage is beyond her reach.
“I’d like to do it, but I just don’t see it happening right now,” she said. “Most of my friends say it’s just a piece of paper, and it doesn’t work out anyway.”
The recent rise in single motherhood has set off few alarms, unlike in past eras. When Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then a top Labor Department official and later a United States senator from New York, reported in 1965 that a quarter of black children were born outside marriage — and warned of a “tangle of pathology” — he set off a bitter debate.
By the mid-1990s, such figures looked quaint: a third of Americans were born outside marriage. Congress, largely blaming welfare, imposed tough restrictions. Now the figure is 41 percent — and 53 percent for children born to women under 30, according to Child Trends, which analyzed 2009 data from the National Center for Health Statistics.
Still, the issue received little attention until the publication last month of “Coming Apart,” a book by Charles Murray, a longtime critic of non-marital births.
Large racial differences remain: 73 percent of black children are born outside marriage, compared with 53 percent of Latinos and 29 percent of whites. And educational differences are growing. About 92 percent of college-educated women are married when they give birth, compared with 62 percent of women with some post-secondary schooling and 43 percent of women with a high school diploma or less, according to Child Trends.
Almost all of the rise in nonmarital births has occurred among couples living together. While in some countries such relationships endure at rates that resemble marriages, in the United States they are more than twice as likely to dissolve than marriages. In a summary of research, Pamela Smock and Fiona Rose Greenland, both of the University of Michigan, reported that two-thirds of couples living together split up by the time their child turned 10.
In Lorain as elsewhere, explanations for marital decline start with home economics: men are worth less than they used to be. Among men with some college but no degrees, earnings have fallen 8 percent in the past 30 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while the earnings of their female counterparts have risen by 8 percent.
“Women used to rely on men, but we don’t need to anymore,” said Teresa Fragoso, 25, a single mother in Lorain. “We support ourselves. We support our kids.”
Fifty years ago, researchers have found, as many as a third of American marriages were precipitated by a pregnancy, with couples marrying to maintain respectability. Ms. Strader’s mother was among them.
Today, neither of Ms. Strader’s pregnancies left her thinking she should marry to avoid stigma. Like other women interviewed here, she described her children as largely unplanned, a byproduct of uncommitted relationships.
Some unwed mothers cite the failures of their parents’ marriages as reasons to wait. Brittany Kidd was 13 when her father ran off with one of her mother’s friends, plunging her mother into depression and leaving the family financially unstable.
“Our family life was pretty perfect: a nice house, two cars, a dog and a cat,” she said. “That stability just got knocked out like a window; it shattered.”
Ms. Kidd, 21, said she could not imagine marrying her son’s father, even though she loves him. “I don’t want to wind up like my mom,” she said.
Others noted that if they married, their official household income would rise, which could cost them government benefits like food stamps and child care. W. Bradford Wilcox, a sociologist at the University of Virginia, said other government policies, like no-fault divorce, signaled that “marriage is not as fundamental to society” as it once was.
Even as many Americans withdraw from marriage, researchers say, they expect more from it: emotional fulfillment as opposed merely to practical support. “Family life is no longer about playing the social role of father or husband or wife, it’s more about individual satisfaction and self-development,” said Andrew Cherlin, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University.
Money helps explain why well-educated Americans still marry at high rates: they can offer each other more financial support, and hire others to do chores that prompt conflict. But some researchers argue that educated men have also been quicker than their blue-collar peers to give women equal authority. “They are more willing to play the partner role,” said Sara McLanahan, a Princeton sociologist.
Reviewing the academic literature, Susan L. Brown of Bowling Green State University recently found that children born to married couples, on average, “experience better education, social, cognitive and behavioral outcomes.”
Lisa Mercado, an unmarried mother in Lorain, would not be surprised by that. Between nursing classes and an all-night job at a gas station, she rarely sees her 6-year-old daughter, who is left with a rotating cast of relatives. The girl’s father has other children and rarely lends a hand.
“I want to do things with her, but I end up falling asleep,” Ms. Mercado said.
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US election: Newt Gingrich accuses Republican rivals of being ‘chickens’
Newt Gingrich has accused Republican presidential rivals of being too afraid to debate with him in his home state of Georgia, after they refused to join in a televised showdown.
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich during the campaign rally in Peachtree City Photo: AP
By Jacqui Goddard, Miami
8:23PM GMT 18 Feb 2012 Volunteers dressed as chickens took to the stage before Mr Gingrich’s appearance at a rally in Peachtree City, Georgia, holding placards that mocked Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul for their decision to skip a debate that had been scheduled to take place in Atlanta next month.
“If you’re afraid to debate Newt Gingrich, you sure can’t debate Barack Obama,” Mr Gingrich told a crowd of supporters.
One of the accompanying poultry waved a banner declaring “I’m chicken to debate Newt” and the other a sign bearing a reminder that Georgia is worth 76 voting delegates at the Republican National Convention in August – “But Mitt and Rick don’t want them?”
The debate had been organised by the Republican party in Georgia and in Ohio.
“I think the average Georgian and the average Ohioan is going to say ‘Let me get this straight. They’re not willing to come here to debate, but they want my vote?’” said Mr Gingrich.
“Frankly there is something wrong when somebody tries to buy their way to the presidency with a series of negative ads and won’t stand out in the open.”
Mr Gingrich’s pot is hardly lacking, however. Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino magnate, is to give a further $10 million to the pro-Gingrich political action committee Winning Our Future, which channels money to the candidate’s campaign.
The donation by Mr Adelson – who is said to earn more than $3 million an hour from his casino empire, which includes The Venetian and The Sands in Las Vegas – would be among the largest publicly reported donations to a single entity in federal campaign history.
Mr Santorum – who on Friday attempted to clarify his controversial stance on birth control, stating that his personal opposition to it as a practicing Catholic would not affect the availability of birth control methods should he become president – has declared Ohio “ground zero” in the presidential race.
It carries the second largest number of voting delegates of any state except Georgia in the opening months of the campaign. “There’s no state that can shout louder,” he said.
Mr Gingrich’s pot is hardly lacking, however. Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino magnate, is to give a further $10 million to the pro-Gingrich political action committee Winning Our Future, which channels money to the candidate’s campaign.
The donation by Mr Adelson – who is said to earn more than $3 million an hour from his casino empire, which includes The Venetian and The Sands in Las Vegas – would be among the largest publicly reported donations to a single entity in federal campaign history.
Mr Santorum – who on Friday attempted to clarify his controversial stance on birth control, stating that his personal opposition to it as a practicing Catholic would not affect the availability of birth control methods should he become president – has declared Ohio “ground zero” in the presidential race.
It carries the second largest number of voting delegates of any state except Georgia in the opening months of the campaign. “There’s no state that can shout louder,” he said.
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Feb 17, 2012 3:08am
Newt Gingrich’s California Factor
Email LOS ANGELES – When Newt Gingrich announced he would be spending the majority of the week in California it was assumed the candidate, who is low on funds, was heading west to collect money.
While Gingrich’s California political director said fundraising this week likely pushed the campaign to its $2 million goal in the state since the beginning of the campaign, there is another strategy is in the works to rack up votes as the state awards proportional delegates for the first time.
The California Republican primary isn’t until June 5, but Michael Schroeder, Gingrich’s state political director, said if by Super Tuesday the race is still a three or four man split, California could suddenly come into play.
Gingrich has long said he’s in the race until the convention, even saying Thursday his goal was “to go to Tampa.”
California awards 172 delegates, and was a winner-take-all state in previous Republican presidential primary elections. This election cycle the state will award proportional delegates for the first time, and delegates are bound based on a win in one of the 53 congressional districts. Each district awards three delegates, and an additional 10 at-large delegates are bound to the state-wide winner.
“If you win a couple of congressional districts, you get can get as many as you would have gotten in New Hampshire just out of two congressional delegates,” Schroeder said. “So everything’s going to change in terms of how California’s campaigned to. We’ll be campaigned to like we’re several different states.”
Schroeder said there are districts with only four or five thousand Republicans, such as in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles.
“Most of them are either Asian, African American or Hispanic. And so you’re going to see for the first time presidential candidates aggressively campaigning to Asians, blacks and Hispanics in California, because they can win significant numbers of delegates,” Schroeder said.
Gingrich held eight fundraisers throughout the week, mostly charging a $250 to $500 admission for photo opportunities and a speech, but he also held a few events, all hyper focused on certain minority demographics.
Gingrich held a Hispanic town hall on Tuesday in El Monte at a Mexican restaurant, where many of the questions from the mostly Hispanic crowd were centered on immigration and other Hispanic issues. Thursday, He campaigned at the office of the Korea Times, near the Koreatown district of Los Angeles. Many of the guests and journalists were of Asian descent and asked Gingrich questions centered on his foreign policy.
Rick Santorum has not yet campaigned in the Golden State, while Romney has spent time fundraising there and held a few campaign events in the summer. Gingrich’s state political director, Schroeder, was Romney’s state political director in 2008.
Gingrich said today his trip to California was a success for his campaign, though some questioned why he wasn’t spending his week focused on the upcoming primaries of Arizona, Michigan, Washington, and Super Tuesday states.
“I hope to leave with affection, votes, fond memories and money, all of those things coming together,” Gingrich said.
Gingrich heads back to California on Feb. 25 to speak at the California Republican Party Convention in Burlingame.
While Gingrich’s California political director said fundraising this week likely pushed the campaign to its $2 million goal in the state since the beginning of the campaign, there is another strategy is in the works to rack up votes as the state awards proportional delegates for the first time.
The California Republican primary isn’t until June 5, but Michael Schroeder, Gingrich’s state political director, said if by Super Tuesday the race is still a three or four man split, California could suddenly come into play.
Gingrich has long said he’s in the race until the convention, even saying Thursday his goal was “to go to Tampa.”
California awards 172 delegates, and was a winner-take-all state in previous Republican presidential primary elections. This election cycle the state will award proportional delegates for the first time, and delegates are bound based on a win in one of the 53 congressional districts. Each district awards three delegates, and an additional 10 at-large delegates are bound to the state-wide winner.
“If you win a couple of congressional districts, you get can get as many as you would have gotten in New Hampshire just out of two congressional delegates,” Schroeder said. “So everything’s going to change in terms of how California’s campaigned to. We’ll be campaigned to like we’re several different states.”
Schroeder said there are districts with only four or five thousand Republicans, such as in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles.
“Most of them are either Asian, African American or Hispanic. And so you’re going to see for the first time presidential candidates aggressively campaigning to Asians, blacks and Hispanics in California, because they can win significant numbers of delegates,” Schroeder said.
Gingrich held eight fundraisers throughout the week, mostly charging a $250 to $500 admission for photo opportunities and a speech, but he also held a few events, all hyper focused on certain minority demographics.
Gingrich held a Hispanic town hall on Tuesday in El Monte at a Mexican restaurant, where many of the questions from the mostly Hispanic crowd were centered on immigration and other Hispanic issues. Thursday, He campaigned at the office of the Korea Times, near the Koreatown district of Los Angeles. Many of the guests and journalists were of Asian descent and asked Gingrich questions centered on his foreign policy.
Rick Santorum has not yet campaigned in the Golden State, while Romney has spent time fundraising there and held a few campaign events in the summer. Gingrich’s state political director, Schroeder, was Romney’s state political director in 2008.
Gingrich said today his trip to California was a success for his campaign, though some questioned why he wasn’t spending his week focused on the upcoming primaries of Arizona, Michigan, Washington, and Super Tuesday states.
“I hope to leave with affection, votes, fond memories and money, all of those things coming together,” Gingrich said.
Gingrich heads back to California on Feb. 25 to speak at the California Republican Party Convention in Burlingame.
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Obama: ‘In America We Don’t Give Up, We Get Up’ User Comments
Still nothing has changed: Obama sucks. And he’ll still be sucking just as much when November barrels into town.
Posted by: sai | February 17, 2012, 9:35 am 9:35 am Gingrich isn’t for me, but I wouldn’t even dream of voting for Obama again.
Posted by: lawrence | February 17, 2012, 9:37 am 9:37 am LOL! Love the generic and tiresome ‘Obama sucks’ line from the drones on the Right. Especially while watching the utter morons they get to choose from for their candidate. And ESPECIALLY since every single caucus or primary the Republicans have held so far has been a hilarious joke, replete with recounts, miscounts, missing ballots, uncounted counties – you would think this was the first time the GOP has ever gone through a primary process to select a candidate. So keep on hating Obama, losers. It is ALL you’ve got going for your Party today.
Posted by: Disgusted with gop | February 17, 2012, 9:48 am 9:48 am LOL! The lib-drones drone on, and on. Obama is an absolute failure. Perhaps this is because he was never even remotely qualified to be president. From crooked community orgamizer, shakedown artist and con man, to a mostly absentee senator, on to prez. lol. No real job — ever — not even when he was far younger.
Posted by: disgusted with those who are “disgusted” | February 17, 2012, 9:58 am 9:58 am LOL. Simple facts really “disgust” some folks. Obama, no REAL job EVER — a simple fact. It’s like…accurate biography.
Posted by: barb | February 17, 2012, 10:24 am 10:24 am All of this is getting most of us nowhere. My main concern is that I sometimes feel that it is bad that I crank it hard and fast to pics and vids of Obama. Perhaps I shouldn’t?
Posted by: DISGUSTED WITH GOP | February 17, 2012, 10:28 am 10:28 am Yes, simple facts…
From Factcheck.org:
“The nation’s total debt stood at $10.6 trillion on the day Obama took office, and it had increased to nearly $15.4 trillion by the end of January 2012 — a rise of more than $4.7 trillion in just over three years.
That’s a huge increase to be sure — 44.5 percent. And the Congressional Budget Office now projects that it will grow to more than $16 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30. At that point, the debt will have increased by more dollars in Obama’s first four years than it did in George W. Bush’s entire eight-year tenure, when it rose by $4.9 trillion. The rise under Obama would then be the biggest dollar increase for any president in U.S. history.”
Posted by: sad but true | February 17, 2012, 10:31 am 10:31 amFrom Factcheck.org:
“The nation’s total debt stood at $10.6 trillion on the day Obama took office, and it had increased to nearly $15.4 trillion by the end of January 2012 — a rise of more than $4.7 trillion in just over three years.
That’s a huge increase to be sure — 44.5 percent. And the Congressional Budget Office now projects that it will grow to more than $16 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30. At that point, the debt will have increased by more dollars in Obama’s first four years than it did in George W. Bush’s entire eight-year tenure, when it rose by $4.9 trillion. The rise under Obama would then be the biggest dollar increase for any president in U.S. history.”
yes, simple facts…
From Factcheck.org:
“The nation’s total debt stood at $10.6 trillion on the day Obama took office, and it had increased to nearly $15.4 trillion by the end of January 2012 — a rise of more than $4.7 trillion in just over three years.
That’s a huge increase to be sure — 44.5 percent. And the Congressional Budget Office now projects that it will grow to more than $16 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30. At that point, the debt will have increased by more dollars in Obama’s first four years than it did in George W. Bush’s entire eight-year tenure, when it rose by $4.9 trillion. The rise under Obama would then be the biggest dollar increase for any president in U.S. history.”
Posted by: Simple Joe | February 17, 2012, 10:39 am 10:39 amFrom Factcheck.org:
“The nation’s total debt stood at $10.6 trillion on the day Obama took office, and it had increased to nearly $15.4 trillion by the end of January 2012 — a rise of more than $4.7 trillion in just over three years.
That’s a huge increase to be sure — 44.5 percent. And the Congressional Budget Office now projects that it will grow to more than $16 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30. At that point, the debt will have increased by more dollars in Obama’s first four years than it did in George W. Bush’s entire eight-year tenure, when it rose by $4.9 trillion. The rise under Obama would then be the biggest dollar increase for any president in U.S. history.”
Not sure where my comment went but.
To me Newt is the best candidate for the country and should continue pushing a positive agenda while going after Obama, there is certainly enough ammunition. Obama is taking us over a cliff, I just spent 30 minutes looking a new sites and found:
– 28 million citizens are unemployed or underemployed making real unemployment around 17%.
- 16.3% of 18-24 year olds were unemployment in 2011 and 54.3% who were employed earned 6% less than in 2007 to mark the worst rate since 1946
- Failed to pass a budget in over 1000 days helping to make us the most in debt nation in the history of the world with deficits at 62% of GDP in 2011 and projected to be 77% of GDP in 9 years
- From 2010 to 2011 we paid $454 billion in interest on the national debt, or 12% of the budget
- 1 in 5 Americans are receiving some form of government assistance
- 55% want Obamacare repealed, a bill that Pelosi said, “we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it”
- The 1st Amendment rights of religious groups are under attack by trying to force them to pay for contraception
- Congress was bypassed when czars were appointed and again when unilateral appointments were made that are subject to Senate approval even while the Senate was still in session
- Our foreign policy that sees Iran, a country who wishes the total destruction of the US, come ever closer to developing nuclear weapons
- $1.3 billion dollars in foreign aid is sent to Egypt as they hold 19 Americans hostage
- Fast and Furious sends guns to Mexico arming drug cartels that killed a US Border Patrol Agent while the gun data is used to attack our 2nd Amendment
- 11 million homeowners have negative equity, or owe more than their homes are worth
- Students have $1 trillion in student loans or about 14 times more than 15 years ago
- 1 in 3 US students drops out of high school, in Harry Ried’s Nevada the drop out rate among high school students is %58
- Gas prices jumped from $1.61 a gallon in January 2008 to $3.51 a gallon in February 2011 and are only expected to rise while we rely on foreign oil producers
- The Postal Service lost $3 billion in the last three months of 2011
Posted by: Trey | February 17, 2012, 11:05 am 11:05 amTo me Newt is the best candidate for the country and should continue pushing a positive agenda while going after Obama, there is certainly enough ammunition. Obama is taking us over a cliff, I just spent 30 minutes looking a new sites and found:
– 28 million citizens are unemployed or underemployed making real unemployment around 17%.
- 16.3% of 18-24 year olds were unemployment in 2011 and 54.3% who were employed earned 6% less than in 2007 to mark the worst rate since 1946
- Failed to pass a budget in over 1000 days helping to make us the most in debt nation in the history of the world with deficits at 62% of GDP in 2011 and projected to be 77% of GDP in 9 years
- From 2010 to 2011 we paid $454 billion in interest on the national debt, or 12% of the budget
- 1 in 5 Americans are receiving some form of government assistance
- 55% want Obamacare repealed, a bill that Pelosi said, “we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it”
- The 1st Amendment rights of religious groups are under attack by trying to force them to pay for contraception
- Congress was bypassed when czars were appointed and again when unilateral appointments were made that are subject to Senate approval even while the Senate was still in session
- Our foreign policy that sees Iran, a country who wishes the total destruction of the US, come ever closer to developing nuclear weapons
- $1.3 billion dollars in foreign aid is sent to Egypt as they hold 19 Americans hostage
- Fast and Furious sends guns to Mexico arming drug cartels that killed a US Border Patrol Agent while the gun data is used to attack our 2nd Amendment
- 11 million homeowners have negative equity, or owe more than their homes are worth
- Students have $1 trillion in student loans or about 14 times more than 15 years ago
- 1 in 3 US students drops out of high school, in Harry Ried’s Nevada the drop out rate among high school students is %58
- Gas prices jumped from $1.61 a gallon in January 2008 to $3.51 a gallon in February 2011 and are only expected to rise while we rely on foreign oil producers
- The Postal Service lost $3 billion in the last three months of 2011
Treylor, good and real facts they be. Nice antidote to the constant spin and lies from the left.
Posted by: Captain Obvious | February 17, 2012, 11:35 am 11:35 am Gingrich and Santorum want to fix Washington with the
tools of Washington. When all you have ever used is a hammer, it all
looks like a nail. They, as well as Obama come from that venerated institution Congress which is at an 11% approval rating. Washington cannot fix Washington. Cain said it best.
Santorum, however, says he regrets voting for the education reform bill,
and he would support a national right-to-work law as president. On
earmarks, the candidate has said the practice was popular among
Republican lawmakers while he was in office but now opposes it, claiming
the system has become abused.
So, according to Rick, it was OK to spend like a bat out of hell until he
has to “be conservative” and coddle to the same Tea Party he criticized
before. Two candidates I believe in, Ron Paul will eliminate most
anything the Federal government has no business being involved in and
Romney who has cut the size of government and balanced a budget getting
it to a surplus.
Santorum has peaked and the polls show him coming back to earth just like Perry, Cain and Gingrich. As he is truly vetted, he is only a social conservative. Where I live, the Tea Party people know that fiscal sanity is what is needed or we are tomorrow’s Greece. Romney has at least balanced state and Olympic budgets and gotten them in the black. Have him put Paul in charge of eliminating programs that the Feds should have left to the states to begin with. It is the economy and the 10th amendment stupid!
Posted by: MissouriConservative | February 17, 2012, 11:51 am 11:51 amtools of Washington. When all you have ever used is a hammer, it all
looks like a nail. They, as well as Obama come from that venerated institution Congress which is at an 11% approval rating. Washington cannot fix Washington. Cain said it best.
Santorum, however, says he regrets voting for the education reform bill,
and he would support a national right-to-work law as president. On
earmarks, the candidate has said the practice was popular among
Republican lawmakers while he was in office but now opposes it, claiming
the system has become abused.
So, according to Rick, it was OK to spend like a bat out of hell until he
has to “be conservative” and coddle to the same Tea Party he criticized
before. Two candidates I believe in, Ron Paul will eliminate most
anything the Federal government has no business being involved in and
Romney who has cut the size of government and balanced a budget getting
it to a surplus.
Santorum has peaked and the polls show him coming back to earth just like Perry, Cain and Gingrich. As he is truly vetted, he is only a social conservative. Where I live, the Tea Party people know that fiscal sanity is what is needed or we are tomorrow’s Greece. Romney has at least balanced state and Olympic budgets and gotten them in the black. Have him put Paul in charge of eliminating programs that the Feds should have left to the states to begin with. It is the economy and the 10th amendment stupid!
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| State | Gingrich | Paul | Romney | Santorum | reporting | |||
| 02/11 | ME | 6.2% | 35.7% | 39.2% | 17.7% | 84% | ||
| 02/07 | CO | 12.8% | 11.8% | 34.9% | 40.3% | 100% | ||
| 02/07 | MN | 10.8% | 27.1% | 16.9% | 44.9% | 100% | ||
| 02/07 | MO | - | 12.2% | 25.3% | 55.2% | 100% | ||
| 02/04 | NV | 21.1% | 18.8% | 50.1% | 10.0% | 100% | ||
| 01/31 | 31.9% | 7.0% | 46.4% | 13.3% | 100% | |||
| 01/21 | 40.4% | 13.0% | 27.8% | 17.0% | 100% | |||
| 01/10 | 9.4% | 22.9% | 39.3% | 9.4% | 100% | |||
| 01/03 | 13.3% | 21.4% | 24.5% | 24.6% | >99% | |||
| Source: AP |
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Rick Santorum questions Obama’s religious values Saturday, February 18, 2012   Eric Gay / Associated Press Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum during a Tea Party rally, Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012, in Columbus, Ohio. More News Columbus, – Ohio – Lashing out on two fronts, Rick Santorum on Saturday questioned President Obama’s Christian values and attacked GOP rival Mitt Romney’s Olympics leadership as he courted Tea Party activists and evangelical voters in Ohio, “ground zero” in the 2012 nomination fight. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator known for his social conservative views, said Obama’s agenda is based on “some phony theology. Not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology.” He later suggested that the president practices a different kind of Christianity. “In the Christian church there are a lot of different stripes of Christianity,” he said. “If the president says he’s a Christian, he’s a Christian.” The Obama campaign said the comments represent “the latest low in a Republican primary campaign that has been fueled by distortions, ugliness, and searing pessimism and negativity.” In Ohio, a Super Tuesday prize, Santorum played to friendly crowds. Trailing Romney in money and campaign resources, he is depending on the Tea Party movement and religious groups to deliver a victory March 6 in the contest. More delegates will be awarded in Ohio than in any other state except Georgia in the opening months of the Republican campaign. Ohio and Georgia are two of the 10 contests scheduled for March 6, a benchmark for the primary campaign that often decides who can continue to the next level. Santorum has surged in recent opinion polls after capturing Republican caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado and a nonbinding primary in Missouri on Feb. 7. Several polls have shown him ahead in Romney’s native state of Michigan, where primary voters cast ballots a week from Tuesday. Even as he criticized Obama, Santorum also went after one of Romney’s most promoted achievements – his leadership at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. “One of Mitt Romney’s greatest accomplishments, one of the things he talks about most is how he heroically showed up on the scene and bailed out and resolved the problems of the Salt Lake City Olympic Games,” Santorum said. “He heroically bailed out the Salt Lake City Olympic Games by heroically going to Congress and asking them for tens of millions of dollars to bail out the Salt Lake games – in an earmark, in an earmark for the Salt Lake Olympic games.” The Romney campaign does not dispute that congressional earmarks helped save the games. But they noted that Santorum voted for those earmarks, among many others, when he was a senator. “Sometimes when you shoot from the hip, you end up shooting yourself in the foot,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said. We RecommendFrom Around the Web | advertisement | your ad here    
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Rick says President Obama wants to encourage more abortions, especially of the disabled.
firstread.msnbc.msn.com
Rick Santorum accused President Obama of requiring free pre-natal testing in the health-care plan that passed last year, because it would detect if children were disabled, encourage more abortions, and save money. “One of the things that you don’t know about ObamaCare in one of …6 hours ago -
Rick says the government shouldn’t be running public schools.
www.chicagotribune.com
Republican GOP hopeful Rick Santorum may be the most prominent homeschooler in America. So it might not have been surprising that, on Saturday, he told a conservative Christian audience that he intended to homeschool his children in the White House .7 hours ago -
Rick apparently believes that mainstream Protestants are not Christian enough these days.
www.huffingtonpost.com
As far as Rick Santorum is concerned, mainstream Protestantism “is gone from the world of Christianity.” That’s what he told students at Florida’s Ave Maria University, founded by Domino’s Pizza mogul Tom Monaghan, during a 2008 lecture.7 hours ago -
We are proud, and a little disturbed, to present “Sh*t Santorum Says.” If you enjoy it, please make sure to click share and pass it on to your friends.
www.youtube.com
Visit http://santorumexposed.com/ or http://www.facebook.com/exposesantorum to see more of the crazy sh*t that Rick Santorum says. Friday at 11:08am -
Chris Matthews says the media is rooting for Santorum.
www.politico.com
MSNBC host Chris Matthews — who has been railing pretty hard on Mitt Romney lately — made a broad-sweeping generalization about where the media stands when it comes to the 2012 Republican primary race.Thursday at 4:32pm -
Santorum’s Sugar Daddy Foster Friess says that women should put aspirin between their knees as inexpensive contraception. Classy.
Thursday at 2:56pm -
Daily Kos is encouraging their readers to vote for Santorum in upcoming open primaries. They’re calling the scheme “Operation Hilarity.”
www.newser.com
The Daily Kos may be a liberal blog, but it’s throwing its support behind Rick Santorum—sort of. In a post yesterday announcing “Operation Hilarity,” Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas… Politics News Summaries. | NewserThursday at 2:22pm -
Rick has released his tax returns for the last four years.
www.politico.com
Exclusive: The candidate releases four years worth of his tax returns, from 2007 through 2010.February 15 at 11:26pm -
Today’s Quinnipiac University poll: Santorum “shoots to the top among Ohio likely Republican primary voters with 36 percent, followed by 29 percent for Romney”
February 15 at 12:29pm -
-
”One of the things I will talk about that no President has talked about before is I think the dangers of contraception in this country…”
swampland.time.com
Candidates often say things when polling in the single digits that come back to haunt them when they start leading the polls. Last October, Rick Santorum gave an interview with an Evangelical blog called Caffeinated Thoughts, in which he said contraception is “not okay,” and that this would be a pub…February 14 at 7:27pm -
”Last month, GOP voters who identified as conservative were split evenly — 25% for Romney and Gingrich, and 24% for Santorum. Now, 38% favor Santorum, 24% back Romney and Gingrich has dropped to 12%.”
February 14 at 3:12pm -
Oh, and 2 new national polls out today – both statistical ties. Pew has Rick on top with 30% to Mitt’s 28%; Gallup has Mitt on top with 32% to Ricky’s 30%.
www.washingtonpost.com
Rick Santorum has tied Mitt Romney in national support among Republicans, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.February 13 at 6:13pm -
Another Public Policy Polling poll has Santorum leading Romney 39% – 24% in Michigan, the state where Mitt’s father was governor.
February 13 at 5:18pm -
”Confronted by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos with a passage from his book criticizing feminists for luring women into the workplace, the former senator suggested that it might have been written by his wife, a nurse and lawyer who felt that people “looked down their nose” at her decision to quit her job to raise the couple’s children. “
opinion.latimes.com
Say what you want about Rick Santorum, he has been consistent in advocating for what I like to think of as the Kitty McGough line on family values. Like Santorum, Mom believed that motherhood was a higher calling for a…February 13 at 3:39pm -
And by government control of lives, Rick means requiring insurers to cover contraception…
www.youtube.com
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum took on President Obama and his policies toward health care and contraception Friday at a conference for cons…February 12 at 6:43pm -
Guess who’s now calling himself the “Richie Cunningham” candidate.
www.washingtontimes.com
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum isn’t the coolest candidate in American politics, but the former Pennsylvania senator doesn’t plan to change.February 12 at 5:12pm
-
If you watch the Sunday AM political shows tomorrow, your TV is going to be full of Santorum.
February 11 at 5:46pm -
A new national poll shows Rick Santorum leading by 15 percentage points. Yes, you read that correctly.
santorumexposed.com
A new Public Policy Polling poll shows Rick Santorum leading Mitt Romney nationally by 15 percentage points, 38% – 23%. Here are more poll details:February 11 at 3:50pm -
Rick accuses President Obama of helping Iran go nuclear. Do you think even Rick actually believes this stuff??
thinkprogress.org
Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum, hot off his primary victories in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado, accused President Obama of allowing Iran to obtain nuclear weapons. According to the former Pennsylvania senator, because the Obama administration rejected the Keystone pipeline, it “k…February 11 at 2:53pm -
Since Rick seems to be focused on women and birth control over the last couple of days, we figured we would share this little blast from the past in which he says birth control harms women and society.
February 10 at 4:24pm -
Rick says contraception should not be covered by any insurance plans. Do you think he believes the same thing about erectile dysfunction medications?
www.huffingtonpost.com
Former Sen. Rick Santorum said on Friday afternoon that he was not persuaded by the Obama administration’s revisions of rules requiring religious institutions to cover contraception as part of their workers’ health care plans. Speaking less than two hours after the president said he would give those…February 10 at 3:42pm -
Anybody want to venture a guess as to what Rick is actually concerned about?
February 9 at 9:42pm -
Rick believes that President Obama’s policies will eventually lead to executions of religious people. Yes, he actually said that. There’s video.
thinkprogress.org
Rick Santorum continued to rail against President Obama’s so-called war against religion during a town hall in Plano, Texas Wednesday night. The former Pennsylvania senator — who has spent the last several days criticizing the government’s requirement that insurers provide contraception coverage and…February 9 at 3:05pm -
The Partisans from The Second City Network have put together a satirical “Women for Santorum” ad based on Rick’s views on birth control and women’s reproductive rights.
www.youtube.com
What kind of woman supports Rick Santorum? We don’t know, so we had to imagine. Every 7 minutes, a woman is raped. If this is some form of gift, Rick Santoru…February 8 at 6:04pm -
Politico gives us Rick’s 10 biggest problems.
www.politico.com
He’s riding high after a hat trick of wins, but there is plenty that could come back to bite him.February 8 at 3:22pm -
For all the new folks visiting our page for the first time today, here’s a list of some of Rick Santorum’s greatest hits. Please share it with your friends.
www.addictinginfo.org
Here are 31 quotes that prove how ignorant, fanatical, heartless, and dangerous Rick Santorum is.February 8 at 12:42pm -
”Santorum now appears to pose a more serious threat not only to Romney, but also to Gingrich, who had been positioning himself as the logical alternative to Romney.”
www.washingtonpost.com
Rick Santorum had breakthrough night Tuesday, winning three contests to revive his campaign.February 8 at 1:56am -
It appears that Rick has won all 3 GOP primary contests tonight. Make sure you share our Facebook page with all of your friends so they can learn more about the real Rick Santorum!
February 8 at 1:04am -
He’s baaaack! CNN projects Santorum the winner of the Missouri GOP primary. Waiting for results from Minnesota and Colorado (Santorum ahead in both states).
content.usatoday.com
Our live blog of the results from the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and the Missouri primary. Rick Santorum is hoping to win two of the contests.February 7 at 9:55pm -
”Rick Santorum went after Mitt Romney at an election day rally here, accusing the GOP front-runner of forcing the Catholic church in Massachusetts to provide emergency contraception to rape victims.”
abcnews.go.com
BLAINE, Minn. — Rick Santorum went after Mitt Romney at an election day rally here, accusing the GOP front-runner of forcing the Catholic church in Massachusetts to provide emergency contraception to rape victims. “They said to people of faith, specifically the Catholic church, that you will provide…February 7 at 7:51pm -
Will tonight’s caucuses be the beginning of a second Santorum surge? What do you think?
www.csmonitor.com
With signs that Newt Gingrich is fading, Tuesday’s three caucuses could help Rick Santorum woo anti-Romney conservatives. But many challenges lie ahead.February 7 at 4:38pm -
The folks at Bad Lip Reading give us their very funny take on Rick Santorum. For the humor challenged, Rick did not actually say any of these things.
www.youtube.com
Like on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/badlipreading Follow on Twitter! http://twitter.com/ badlipreading Original vids available here: http://www.youtube/…. February 7 at 2:18pm -
Santorum jumps into the Komen Foundation controversy by citing a previously-debunked link between abortion and breast cancer. It’s interesting what “science” Rick chooses to believe.
videocafe.crooksandliars.com
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Sunday suggested that Susan G. Komen for the Cure shouldn’t provide grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings because abortions cause breast cancer, a false claim that has been …February 6 at 2:57pm
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Rick and his buddy James Dobson have been lying about health care reform again.
www.philly.com
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum appears to be backing a claim that the Obama administration would block medical treatment for stroke patients over age 70. Professional medical groups have called such statements bogus.February 4 at 7:41pm -
Anybody want to caption a picture of Rick Santorum group-Tebowing?
February 4 at 2:51pm -
Rick is now comparing President Obama to a mythological Siren who will destroy, devour, and consume you. You can’t even make this stuff up.
www.boston.com
Rick Santorum’s campaign slogan could very well be one word: doomsday. To hear him tell it, the United States will collapse under the weight of its health care system and basic freedoms will be history. Iran will annihilate Israel and then South Carolina if Iran isn’t blocked from building a nuclear…February 3 at 2:54pm -
Yesterday, Rick told the mother of a child with a rare genetic disorder that she shouldn’t have a problem paying $1 million a year for the prescription drug Abilify because Apple’s iPad can cost around $900. There’s video.
www.opposingviews.com
Speaking in Woodland Park, Colorado on Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate and self-proclaimed Christian, Rick Santorum told the mother of a child with a rare genetic disorder that she shouldn’t have a problem paying $1 million a year for the prescription drug Abilify because Apple’s iPad can…February 2 at 2:47pm -
Now there’s a headline for you…
www.politico.com
His remarks had some asking whether the talk-radio host had endorsed the candidate.February 1 at 5:55pm -
Rick raised some cash in January.
www.cbsnews.com
Republican candidate trails in third place in Florida but says he could have been a contender in the Sunshine state Read more by Lindsey Boerma on CBS News’ Political Hotsheet.January 31 at 3:18pm -
Newt causes Rick to bristle.
www.philly.com
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says Newt Gingrich shouldn’t be urging him to drop out of the primaries.January 31 at 1:51pm -
Rick says his opponents are engaged in “gutter politics.”
www.huffingtonpost.com
COTTLEVILLE, Mo. — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum denounced the “gutter politics” of his opponents Monday as he turned his campaign away from a potentially futile effort in Florida in hopes of regaining momentum in the Midwest. After spending what he described as a stressful w…January 31 at 12:51pm -
Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin endorsed Rick today.
January 30 at 4:35pm
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Rick tells Minnesota Republicans that he’d be the best nominee because he would win Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania in the General Election. Does Rick forget that he lost Pennsylvania by 18 percentage points last time he ran?
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com
Miami (CNN) – Rick Santorum’s campaign announced late Sunday night what its candidate had been hinting at for more than a week: he has canceled all remaining events in Florida and instead will begin a push towards the western primaries and caucuses to be held in early February.January 30 at 1:25pm -
Rick seems to have gotten his facts wrong again.
January 28 at 7:19pm -
Ellen is absolutely correct! Please caption this one immediately!
Dude, is this like the BEST photo of Rick or what… we need some captions here folks… STAT!
By: Ellen ArndtJanuary 27 at 4:18pm -
Rick is leaving Florida to go home and do his taxes. By home, we’re guessing he means Virginia.
www.google.com
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (AP) — Rick Santorum is tired, almost broke — and going home. The former Pennsylvania senator is taking a pause from Florida campaigning just days before the Tuesday primary that even he expects to deal him a third consecutive loss.January 27 at 1:42pm -
Rick is squarely against colonizing the moon.
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com
Tallahassee, Florida (CNN) — A day after Newt Gingrich vowed to build a base on the moon by the end of his second term in office, Rick Santorum suggested that such a promise was merely pandering to Florida voters.January 26 at 4:57pm -
When Rick says “truth,” he means his own personal truth, which usually is not based on facts or logic.
www.naplesnews.com
“You may not like what I say and you may not like how I say it, but you can always know I will tell Americans the truth,” Santorum told a crowd of more than 1,000 people at First Baptist Church in North Naples. “That’s what leadership is about.” Santorum spoke for about an hour Wednesday — less tha…January 26 at 3:26pm -
Rick says marriage is a privilege that the government uses to promote healthy activity.
www.postonpolitics.com
STUART — Despite low poll numbers, Rick Santorum isn’t changing his focus, continuing to campaign as the hero of the far right. At a campaign stop atJanuary 25 at 1:56pm -
”That’s Barack Obama’s view of America: the elites ruling on high, King George reincarnated,” so sayeth Rick “The Religious Revolutionary” Santorum.
www.huffingtonpost.com
GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum tried to paint President Barack Obama as haughty, out-of-touch royalty at a campaign event in Florida on Tuesday, comparing him to King George III.January 24 at 6:04pm -
Rick told the Morning Joe crew that it is not his job to correct lies or misconceptions about the President, then he whined about how the media lies about him and calls him names and no one defends him.
January 24 at 4:56pm -
Rick advises rape victims who become pregnant to “make the best of” the “gift” that “God has given” them.
thinkprogress.org
Standing steadfast as the most socially right-wing candidate in the GOP presidential field, Rick Santorum has repeatedly touted his extreme anti-choice position, which dictates that abortion should be uniformly illegal, even in cases of rape or incest. He even suggested that physicians who provide a…January 23 at 8:19pm -
Jezebel wants to fulfill Rick’s dream of having a uterus of his own. Short of that, they have some suggestions for donations you can send him to help properly care for his new uterus.
jezebel.com
Monday marks the first full day of the 40th year of Roe v. Wade, but the 53rd year, 8th month, and 14th day that Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum has existed on this planet without a uterus of his very own.January 23 at 6:57pm
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Rick agrees with woman who says that President Obama “ignores the Constitution,” fails to correct her assertion that Obama is “an avowed Muslim.” Classy.
At Florida Town Hall, Rick Santorum Cowardly Panders To Woman Who Alleges Obama Is ‘An Avowed Muslimthinkprogress.org
At a Rick Santorum town hall meeting in Lady Lake, Florida moments ago, a woman stood up to declare that she doesn’t like to refer to “President Obama as president because, legally, he is not.” While the audience gasped and clapped at the comment, Santorum restrained himself, refusing to utter a cri…January 23 at 3:32pm -
Rick came in third in South Carolina yesterday and got glitter bombed.
www.inquisitr.com
As if finishing in third-place behind Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich wasn’t bad enough for GOP Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum he also had to deal with a glitter bombing incident during the South Carolina primary. The glitter bombing occurred on Saturday night as protesters crashed the South Car…January 22 at 7:23pm -
”This is not an easy choice. I understand that. As horrible as the way that son or daughter was created, it still is her child.”
www.cbsnews.com
In a CNN interview, the GOP candidate says that he would counsel his daughter not to get an abortion in the case of rape Read more by Rebecca Kaplan, Naureen Khan on CBS News’ Political Hotsheet.January 21 at 1:17pm -
Rick screwed a DC veterans home out of as much as $83 million to the direct benefit of the Catholic Church and Catholic University. Please share this story with your friends.
motherjones.com
A controversial land deal by the presidential candidate robbed a vets’ home of tens of millions of dollars.January 20 at 3:14pm -
The Christian Science Monitor examines Rick’s tax plan and says the impact on the deficit would be enormous.
www.csmonitor.com
Santorum would cut taxes for nearly all households making $40,000 or more. But the impact on the deficit would be enormous: Santorum would cut taxes by roughly $1 trillion in 2015 alone.January 20 at 2:29pm -
To get you ready for tonight’s Republican debate, here’s another picture of Rick that is just begging to be captioned. Yes, that’s a dollar bill he’s holding. Enjoy.
January 19 at 5:56pm -
In case you missed it, Rick has been declared the official winner of the Iowa caucuses.
Report: Santorum finished 34 votes ahead of Romney in new Iowa tally; votes from 8 precincts missingwww.washingtonpost.com
Final tallies in Iowa caucuses show Rick Santorum ahead of Mitt Romney by 34 votes; results from eight precincts are missing.January 19 at 3:36pm -
Rick gets caught lying again.
blogs.chicagotribune.com
Rick Santorum during Monday night’s debate: Elayne Bennett runs a program called Best Friends — the wife of Bill Bennett — and she told me that the Obama administration now has a policy- and this program is a program targeted…January 18 at 7:51pm -
Rick says he has a big surprise for you on Saturday.
www.youtube.com
At a town hall in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said “experts are wrong abut their predictions for Saturday’s …January 18 at 5:22pm -
Rick has a Tea Party buddy with very deep pockets who has pledged $500,000 to a super PAC supporting Santorum.
www.energypublisher.com
Foster Friess, who has deep pockets for the Tea Party movement, has pledged to give $500K to the Red White and Blue Fund. — International energy news and analysis.January 18 at 3:47pm -
Rick has a novel way to get a boost in South Carolina: having himself declared the winner of Iowa
www.washingtonpost.com
Rick Santorum may have won Iowa, James Dobson called Callista Gingrich a “mistress of eight years,” Obama will speak in Bank of America stadium and a competitive House race might be shaping up in Portland of all place.January 17 at 6:31pm
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Oddball comment of the day: Rick says “people have gotten smaller and smaller.”
www.youtube.com
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum says government has gotten too big and people too small and what is at stake in this election is liberty for everyo…January 16 at 4:13pm -
Pay-to-play, anyone?
www.nytimes.com
An examination of some of the earmarks Rick Santorum got as a senator from Pennsylvania suggests that they paid off in the form of campaign contributions.January 16 at 4:07pm -
Rick says God thinks of him as “disabled.” Oh boy.
firstread.msnbc.msn.com
CHARLESTON, S.C.January 15 at 11:39am -
Rick has just been endorsed by a group of evangelical leaders. What do you think that means for his campaign in South Carolina and Florida?
www.washingtonpost.com
More than 150 evangelical leaders met Friday night to debate their preferred candidate in the GOP presidential race.January 14 at 1:46pm -
Rick truly believes in charity… especially for his political consultants and allies.
www.washingtonpost.com
Santorum launched Operation Good Neighbor in 2001 to show his commitment to compassionate conservatism, but it gets low ratings for helping the poor.January 13 at 4:35pm -
Since 2006 Rick has been using this same end-of-times scenario as the motivation behind everything done by people he considers to be “Islamo-Fascists.” Now he’s applying it to Iran. As Vali Nasr says, Santorum’s argument is “trying to portray the U.S. standoff with Iran as a war of civilization, as a religious war,” which is more marketable. “Trying to read Iran’s motivations and behavior through the prism of religion, especially when you don’t even understand the religion, to me seems not very productive.”
Did Santorum Suggest Iran Wants Nukes to Bring Back Messiah? – Government / Elections / Politics – Fwww.pbs.org
As international inspectors confirmed Monday that Iran has begun enriching uranium at its underground Fordo plant, presidential hopeful Rick Santorum laid out a bold claim that Iran’s leadership deliberately located the plant to hasten an apocalyptic “end-of-times” scenario. FRONTLINE asked some exp…January 13 at 3:26pm -
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A pro-Santorum Super PAC has bought almost $800,000 in TV ad time in South Carolina.
abcnews.go.com
Andrew Burton/Getty Images The Red, White and Blue Fund, the super PAC supporting former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum’s bid for president, announced a new $600,000 ad buy in South Carolina today. The group, formed in December, had previously made an ad buy of $190,000 in the Palmetto state. Th…January 12 at 1:42pm -
A good piece about what Rick thinks of as freedom.
www.thedailybeast.com
His Iowa boost has thrown into high relief his hunger for more government control of Americans’ lives.January 11 at 5:38pm -
Somehow Rick has left out the Communism part of his grandfather’s immigration story. Does that qualify as a lie of omission? “On the campaign trail, Santorum often touts his grandfather’s flight from Italy “to escape fascism,” but he has neglected to publicly mention their close ties with the Italian Communist Party.”
news.yahoo.com
Back in the homeland, the ultraconservative has a family full of liberals and communists. By Barbie Latza Nadeau.January 11 at 3:21pm -
The Daily Beast catches Rick lying again, this time about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
www.thedailybeast.com
Santorum and his rivals are railing against the devious ways Obama’s Consumer Protection Bureau will limit your freedom. Too bad they’re not true. Daniel Stone reports.January 11 at 2:12pm
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Rick explains more about his personal values.
www.huffingtonpost.com
On Saturday in New Hampshire, Rick Santorum was asked by a young Catholic, who (full disclosure) happens to be my fiancee, about whether, as a Catholic, he agrees with the Church’s teaching that Government has a large role in providing for the poor.January 10 at 5:38pm -
Santorum caught in yet another lie. He should probably stop using words like “never.”
thinkprogress.org
Rick Santorum regularly highlights his conservative record on health care reform by touting his successful election against former Sen. Harris Wofford (D-PA), a Democratic champion of universal health care reform who campaigned on guaranteeing insurance for all Americans by encouraging employers and…January 9 at 6:58pm -
”If Santorum makes it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue next year, his inauguration would usher in an era of unprecedented prosperity for big insurance corporations like the ones I used to work for — and an era in which being underinsured would become the new norm for the rest of us.”
www.huffingtonpost.com
If Santorum makes it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue next year, his inauguration would usher in an era of unprecedented prosperity for big insurance corporations.January 9 at 5:50pm -
Shorter Rick: Families with married, heterosexual parents are the most important thing, unless the married, heterosexual parents are Mexican.
thinkprogress.org
Rick Santorum regularly touts the importance of families on the campaign trail, but during a town hall event in New Hampshire this afternoon, the former Pennsylvania senator argued that he would break up immigrant families who entered the country illegally. “It happens every day, we take fathers and…January 9 at 4:55pm -
An examination of Rick’s now infamous “man on dog” remarks.
reason.com
Rick Santorum’s comments about gay marriage in a 2003 interview with the Associated Press have been getting a lot of mileage lately, but they are oftenJanuary 9 at 3:52pm -
This is an interesting take. Do you think these confrontations will help or hurt Rick with Republican voters?
www.washingtonpost.com
If you didn’t know better, you’d think Rick Santorum enjoys being grilled by protesters. In fact, he probably does. And he should.January 8 at 6:37pm -
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Will you be watching the Republican debate tonight? Do you think Rick’s most outrageous statement will have to do with gay marriage, birth control, sodomy, Iran, Israel, dogs, the Declaration of Independence, social programs, abortion or something completely new?
January 7 at 4:09pm -
Politico calls Rick the ultimate D.C. Insider.
January 7 at 2:28pm -
Friday evening fun with another ridiculous picture of Rick. Please caption away…
January 6 at 7:02pm -
Headline from The Fix on WashingtonPost.com: “Ron Paul ad savages Rick Santorum.” Check it out & see what you think.
January 6 at 6:04pm -
Oh boy.
abcnews.go.com
WINDHAM, N.H. – Rick Santorum addressed his largest crowd ever Thursday evening while speaking at an event set up by a tea party group, the 9/12 project. Santorum addressed the crowd and and took questions for almost two hours, as more than 600 people packed into the auditorium at Windham High Schoo…January 6 at 3:16pm -
The New York Times tells us how the cozy relationships Rick Santorum developed with lobbyists and corporations while in the Senate became very lucrative for him after he was voted out of office. Nice work if you can get it (but you can’t).
www.nytimes.com
When he lost his 2006 re-election bid, Rick Santorum built a lucrative career in the private sector based largely on income from businesses his work in Congress had benefited.January 6 at 1:56pm -
New South Carolina Poll: Romney 37%, Santorum 19%
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com
(CNN) — Mitt Romney’s numbers in South Carolina are surging, and he now has a solid lead over his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, according to a new survey of likely GOP primary voters in the Palmetto state.January 6 at 12:15pm -
In 2010 Rick Santorum spoke to PA Republicans to fire up the right-wing base in support of Pat Toomey. Rick tried to do that by claiming that President Obama “doesn’t understand what it means to be an American.” He went on to compare Obama to a schoolyard drug dealer, and imply that Obama poses a similar threat to America as Hitler’s Germany did in World War II.
www.youtube.com
Rick Santorum’s recent speech to the PA Republican State Committee was meant to fire up the right-wing base in support of Pat Toomey. Rick did that by claimi…January 5 at 7:20pm -
New Rasmussen Poll has Santorum at 21% nationally. Second to Romney at 29%.
thehill.com
Rick Santorum has vaulted into second place among the Republican presidential candidates, gaining 17 percent in the last month, according to the latest national survey from conservative polling outlet Rasmussen. http://www.January 5 at 6:12pm -
Rick Santorum goes to New Hampshire and argues condescendingly with college students about his belief that gay marriage is equivalent to polygamy.
January 5 at 5:09pm -
In honor of our 1000th like, we’re launching our first Santorum photo caption contest. The grand prize is the admiration of your fellow fans. Please caption away in the comments, and try to keep it clean…
January 5 at 2:59pm -
We’re at 995! Who will be #1000?
January 5 at 1:55pm -
Philadelphia Daily News reporter Will Bunch wants America to know what many Pennsylvanians already know about Rick’s questionable personal ethics. Please share this post and spread the word.
www.philly.com
You’ve probably heard all the good ones about GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum by now. The one about his “Google problem.” The one about the “man-on-dog sex” (prompting the greatest journalistic response ever, when the reporter told Santorum that he was “sort of freaking me out.”) The one abo…January 5 at 1:12pm
Rick Santorum’s Anal Sex Problem
Illustration: Zina SaundersRick Santorum would very much like to be president. For the past few years, he has been diligently appearing at the sorts of conservative events—the Values Voters Summit, the Conservative Political Action Conference—where aspiring Republican candidates are expected to show up. But before he starts printing “Santorum 2012″ bumper stickers, there’s one issue the former GOP senator and his strategists need to address. You see, Santorum has what you might call a Google problem. For voters who decide to look him up online, one of the top three search results is usually the site SpreadingSantorum.com, which explains that Santorum’s last name is a sexual neologism for “the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.”
GOP Primary Predictor
Santorum’s problem got its start back in 2003, when the then-senator from Pennsylvania compared homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia, saying the “definition of marriage” has never included “man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be.” The ensuing controversy prompted syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage, who’s gay, to start a contest, soliciting reader suggestions for slang terms to “memorialize the scandal.” The winner came up with the “frothy mixture” idea, Savage launched a website, and a meme was born. Even though mainstream news outlets would never link to it, Savage’s site rose in the Google rankings, thanks in part to bloggers who posted Santorum-related news on the site or linked to it from their blogs. Eventually it eclipsed Santorum’s own campaign site in search results; some observers even suggested it may have contributed to Santorum’s crushing 18-point defeat in his 2006 campaign against Bob Casey. Think you’re smarter than a CNN pundit? Predict the next winner with our interactive app.
Savage says his site hasn’t been updated for years, yet it remains entrenched in the Google rankings. Not even Santorum’s ascent as a Fox News contributor or his early campaign swings through the key primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire have managed to bury it. With Google results like this, what’s an aspiring presidential candidate to do?
I wanted to ask Santorum whether he had a strategy for scrubbing his Web presence, but he didn’t return my calls. So instead, I asked a few experts. “This is an unusual problem,” says Michael Fertik, CEO of ReputationDefender, which specializes in helping individuals maintain a positive Web presence. “It’s devastating. This is one of the more creative and salient Google issues I’ve ever seen.”
Fertik, who points out that he is not a supporter of the former senator, notes that more than anything, Santorum needs to act quickly. Once the campaign starts to make headlines again, an increase in search traffic will likely help maintain Savage’s high spot in the rankings: “It’s going to be very hard to move.”
To at least make a dent, Santorum could try a concerted push to generate links to his domain on prominent sites and blogs, ginning its Google ranking; Mark Skidmore, an expert in search-engine marketing at the online strategy firm Blue State Digital, says Santorum should also consider buying paid search results for his name. He says the Obama campaign successfully used this strategy to help bury sites that claimed Obama was a Muslim or not an American citizen. But like Fertik, Skidmore thinks Santorum faces an uphill battle, in part because Savage’s site has been up for so long—with more than 13,000 inbound links, compared with only 5,000 for Santorum’s own site, America’s Foundation. “He’s staring at a very big deficit,” Skidmore observes.
That deficit might grow even bigger soon. “I’ve sort of been in denial about the fact that Rick Santorum is going to run for president,” Savage says. “But now I’m going to have to sic my flying monkeys on him”—in other words, mobilize bloggers to start posting and linking to his site again.
Savage has not forgiven Santorum for his seven-year-old comments: “Rick would have prevented me and my partner from being able to adopt my son,” he points out. But Savage does have a deal for the politician. “If Rick Santorum wants to make a $5 million donation to [the gay marriage group] Freedom to Marry, I will take it down. Interest starts accruing now.” Santorum may want to consider Savage’s offer. Otherwise, he’s kinda screwed.
To at least make a dent, Santorum could try a concerted push to generate links to his domain on prominent sites and blogs, ginning its Google ranking; Mark Skidmore, an expert in search-engine marketing at the online strategy firm Blue State Digital, says Santorum should also consider buying paid search results for his name. He says the Obama campaign successfully used this strategy to help bury sites that claimed Obama was a Muslim or not an American citizen. But like Fertik, Skidmore thinks Santorum faces an uphill battle, in part because Savage’s site has been up for so long—with more than 13,000 inbound links, compared with only 5,000 for Santorum’s own site, America’s Foundation. “He’s staring at a very big deficit,” Skidmore observes.
That deficit might grow even bigger soon. “I’ve sort of been in denial about the fact that Rick Santorum is going to run for president,” Savage says. “But now I’m going to have to sic my flying monkeys on him”—in other words, mobilize bloggers to start posting and linking to his site again.
Savage has not forgiven Santorum for his seven-year-old comments: “Rick would have prevented me and my partner from being able to adopt my son,” he points out. But Savage does have a deal for the politician. “If Rick Santorum wants to make a $5 million donation to [the gay marriage group] Freedom to Marry, I will take it down. Interest starts accruing now.” Santorum may want to consider Savage’s offer. Otherwise, he’s kinda screwed.
Stephanie Mencimer
ReporterStephanie Mencimer is a staff reporter in Mother Jones‘ Washington bureau. For more of her stories, click here. You can also follow her on Twitter. RSS | TwitterShowing 76 of 717 comments
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john michaels 1 day ago - Rick Santorum is coming …… into Your Bedroom By John Chen http://www.web20startup.com/20…show more
February 17th, 2012
Rick Santorum is surging again, takes lead nationally in the race for the GOP nomination. That means Santorum is marching really fast into your bedroom. Because Santorum is severely concerned about what you do in your bedroom; to put it bluntly, he cares a tremendously lot about your sex life.
Santorum has said proudly “We always need a Jesus candidate”, “this right to privacy that doesn’t exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution”. Although Santorum said “I’m not running for preacher. I’m not running for pastor”, he insisted that your sexual actions “are important public policy issues,” These have profound impact on the health of our society.”
So unless you are a married heterosexual couple having sex to make baby, if you are involved in any pleasure-seeking sexual act without the purpose of procreation, either you are doing it with your gay partner or you are having premarital intercourse with your boyfriend or girlfriend, even you are watching porn alone with your hands down there serving yourself, Rick Santorum is coming to get you.
Santorum is coming into your bedroom, Bible in one… - Guest 2 days agoDid anyone notice Enough_Already99′s posts? He only got one single reply, and his argument is the only legitimate one on either side! It’s as though all of you people just skipped it because it was correct… Either that or it was more reading than you’re used to doing in one sitting. The latter would make sense considering the content of all of your posts. Can I hear another one-liner cookie-cutter talking point please! Stun me with your critical, independent thinking!
- It’s simple, homosexuals believe that their love for the same sex and the right to marry their partners is something which they deserve to have the right to do. Now Christians (funny how it’s always the christians who get attacked for this when other religions have an even more radical view of homsexuality) believe that their beliefs are clear that homosexuality is a sin and for them it’s something they don’t want to endorse. But why is it that the christians have to change their point of view and are called bigots for not agreeing with a certain lifestyle why are they expected to change but nobody asks homosexuals to be more tolerant of christian believes, the left wants to change how christians think they want them to accept homosexuality and change, if a christian asked a homosexual to change and like women, he’d be a bigot right? Santorum is clear on what he believes he isn’t forxing it on anyone, and if he does get elected and becomes president and sets about laws that make life a little more difficult for homosexuals, isn’t that what the people voted for, isn’t that democtacy?.
- Guest 1 week agoComment removed.
- “No one cares how they manage to enjoy sex with their same sex partners.” – yet it seems every republican politician can’t STOP thinking about it, lol.
Snapshot1940 liked this - davefaler 6 days ago in reply to GuestHetro’s are pure. Threesomes, dirty talk, anal, bondage, incest, schoolgirls, swallowing, gaging and the list goes on and on. Why is the GOP so fixated on sexual behavior, a turn on maybe?
- what is hdifference between a gay guy and a refridgerator? a fridge doesn’t fart when you pull the meat out.. who has the anal sex problem?????
- What a fantastically loaded title/headline.
- HOLLY56 2 weeks agoCAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG????????????????????? YOU WILL KNOW THE TRUTH AND IT WILL SET YOU FREE
- Lilmonkies09 2 weeks agothis man is nothing short of a clown…
- Scott 2 weeks agohomosexuality is a perversion.
And homosexual anal sex spreads HIV much faster than penis/vagina sex.
So you homos do cause harm to others buy SPREADING HIV.
95% hiv positive male will infect a butt and a vagina.
a vagina does not spread it to the penis .less than 1% of the time.
So don’t spew your garbage that being homosexual male doesn’t hurt anyone. <<<<<it does=”"> HIV SPREADS LIKE WILD FIRE IN GAY MEN>>>>></it> - Scott- If you’re not gay, what are you on about? No issue to you?
Str8 couples engage in anal sex (tho I dislike entering anyone’s bedrooms, it’s true). Anal sex is not horrible & dirty- but to each, their own.
I get strong impressions that the ones opposed are simply prudish & wish they could be open to their own sexual wishes. Instead they try to make it righteous that they are frigid & unsatisfied… now *that*, is sick… - Wisperingwinds 3 weeks agoGay? This adjective means happy. I doubt the new noun really means happy, but is a product of brilliant market rebranding. How can any sane human being like licking shit. The anus is not designed for sex, only the vagina. It’s basic common sense. Leave Santorum alone bum crackers.
- Jeffrey 3 weeks agowe all know that sex is to make babies. Getting married is so kids are not born as bastards.
- They all lie 4 weeks agoWow. Nothing like condoning extortion. way to go. I don’t agree with what Santorum said (I think it makes him sound like a complete MORON) but what Savage “offered”, while it may not meat the legal definition of the word, is still nothing more than extortion. His “campaign” or whatever you want to call it, the contest, all this crap doesn’t make him better then the guy he is attacking. Dan Savage needs to grow up and realize that everyone, even bigoted morons, have a right to their opinion. If he really wants to discredit this guy, why not just use the facts and show he is the better man. Right now, it’s neither. Santorum sounds like a brain dead, religious zealot who thinks that his opinions are fact and that everyone should be required to think the same way he does. Savage sounds like a whiny schoolboy crying because someone said mean things to/about him. Right now, neither of these so-called men are looking very good.
- jeffe68 1 week ago in reply to They all lieSavage was joking and it’s satire. I don’t like it myself but lets try to get a grip and a sense of humor.
- Flashvollmar 4 weeks agoYour negative comments about Mr. Santorum broadcast loudly your lack of intelligence and gross immaturity!
- Theshers 1 month agoThis is a pathetic and sad article, as well as the sentiment behind it….
- SFP 1 month agoThis is DISGUSTING. Nice article Mother Jones. Good god…the lengths that wacko libs will go to on the net….
- Trollmaster 1 month agoCongratulations to all the Googlalinsky’s gathered.
Are you the least bit curious about the existance of Hell?
Even once in a great while? Ever?
Party on Dudes, Dudettes and those limboed. -
‘Tis Moi 1 month agoJMENUIS: a) you have used flawed-logic, as animals cannot give consent, and b) this ridiculous idea about same-sex attraction somehow leading to beastiality was an idea promoted by the far-right, and lastly, c) thank you for making my point about sexual insecurity being the source of the hatred…I must have touched a nerve…jeffe68 liked this - RAY YECHHHHH 1 month agoNo gay man can be Christian. Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. No interpretation or context needed here. It is straightforward and clear.
- davefaler 6 days ago in reply to RAY YECHHHHHLeviticus was talking to the lesbians
- evantoo 1 month agoMother Earth? Another tree hugging left-fielder? Don’t tell me there are people who believe this tripe!
- Aaaaand this is why liberals cannot be taken seriously.
- Hadman80 1 month agoI find Dan Savage to be a very vindictive intolerant man. I also this this page is also a way to smear a good man. This is perverse and an obscene way to try to get President Obama to return to four more years of the deconstructing of America.
- Santorum, I understands, is not against being homosexual. He has an issue with homosexual sexual behavior. Every one will be having sex with dogs and so no children, no families. At the end of the slippery slope of Santorum there will be no America. I wonder what is the Santorum sanctioned sexual practice? Will there be a manual, or will that be pornography. Some thing else he wants to ban.
- BREAKING – Jan. 9, 2012 – Santorum Deep in the Sandusky Penn State Scandalpt.1 http://youtu.be/xzh-jpCRUyE?t=… http://youtu.be/b67ET6Z6ft8Ori… Report: http://bit.ly/wDB3d8
- Shishkkab0b 1 month agoYou libtards can keep that site up and keep that “definition”. It just makes you look more like the scumbags and lowlives that we already know you are!
- Ladies & Gentlemen: Santorum = Un-electable, if by no other virtue than he runs for national office knowing full well that this Google problem exists. His social agenda is too polarizing to the centrists in his own party. Romney will likely emerge as the John Kerry of the GOP.show more
Regarding the human rights issue of same-sex relationships: To all the Christians who point to Leviticus for their Biblical resource, but still eat pork…ever, give it a rest. You’re not losing your religiously based argument (in a secular democracy) it’s lost. The Tea Party has fractured the GOP base that Reagan and Rove built to ensnare you. Thirty years later, with Roe v. Wade still firmly in place, science outpacing prayer in public schools, and same-sex couples receiving full marriage rights in heartland states, how do you FEEL about your Republican officials? They outright lied to you to steal your vote so they could run the country on your back and rob your economic class of its viability. Pray to Jesus, because the GOP doesn’t care about you, and it never did.
To everyone being mean and disrespectful to each other, come on now…pity each other the divide in your understanding…. - beverlee 1 month ago in reply to Will AndersonAnd for more of a point, I am not a Santorum supporter, I am against the hate-mongering of the left and the right.
- beverlee 1 month ago in reply to Will AndersonMean? Dispespectful? So you are pretty much talking about the Left there bubba. Oh, and as far as the prayer vs science comment. . . When we had prayer in school we were #1 in science, since we took prayer out of school we are #17. Such progress for your point, don’t you think?
- Benjamin1943 1 month agoI want to keep Rick Santorum out of my bedroom. He is really creepy. We need to ask
ourselves why Rick Santorum wants to be looking over our shoulder while we are in our
bedrooms.
Here is an actual Rick Santorum quote: “One of the things I will talk about, that no
president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this
country.” And also, “Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay,
contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm
that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”
See whole article: http://www.salon.com/2012/01/04/rick_santorum_is_coming_for_your_birth_control
/singleton/ - Fiscally I consider myself a conservative and vote Republican almost always. I have to say
Santorum, really lost my support with the contraception remark. Santorum is way to the right of main street America. His nomination would guarantee us 4 more years of Obama, in my eyes a horrendous result. - Zen2nite 1 month agoI love the way you lefties bash anyone you disagrees
with. Now that’s real class! Are you kidding me? The left are the biggest bunch
of biased bigots.
- That’s a republican for you!!! Obama 2012
- harrykuheim 1 month ago in reply to Kala BallardAnal sex? Why there is no down side…except the AIDS Epidemic and the many Billions in Health Care costs. Who cares? The Government will pay for it.
-
eldave1 1 month agoSantorum is a liar – even when discussing his own tortured convictions http://wordsofwhizdumb.com/201… - Annette 1 month agoSanitorium gave us a peak of his twisted mindset regarding religion and sexuality. He boasted of his catholic school upbringing, when the nuns would whack him when misbehaving. He also reflects on Augustine of Hippo, who, by ALL accounts, had a wild youthful time, bedded and lusted for his Afrikan prostitute/lover, until mommy got him to marry a white woman. His betrothed was not his true love- his backside affection for his concubine haunted him. And with that came guilt- that he dumped his whore and then unfairly married another- how can he show fair affection for her?
To remove his innappropriate affection from his shattered mind, he realizes he must embrace CELIBACY… and punishment.
Ricky is into S/m. He loves the pain, it brings him, in his sick mind, closer to god… a constant physical reminder of his mortal status. The self-flagellates would be proud. - Santorum said he believes birth control is “immoral and wrong”. So he’s not only a nut job, but a 1950′s nut job. He has no chance of getting nominated or elected, but the fact he thinks he could bothers me as well….
- richard_weeks 1 month ago in reply to gonzoThis is simply the position of the Catholic Church. Rick Santorum is Catholic as are 75 million other Americans. So, his position is quite widely respected, even if not practiced. (You seem not to be aware of this fact of American demography.)
- The fecal froth is called Thomas Dichristina around Georgia Tech.
- allynnova 1 month agoShould heterosexuals who are sterile or too old to have children not be allowed to be married, simply because they can’t reproduce sexually? If its good enough for gays, it should be good enough for them.
- richard_weeks 1 month ago in reply to allynnovaThe difference between heterosexual couples and homosexual couples is that heterosexuals can carelessly reproduce, and this fact has to be regulated by the institution of marriage whenever possible (so offspring are protected). Also, it is too burdensome for the state to keep track of which heterosexual couples are at risk of having offspring and which are not. With same sex couples, we know they will not reproduce (unless they bring someone of the opposite sex into the picture, and then it becomes a heterosexual situation – basically, one member of homosexual couple hooking up with someone of the opposite sex). As for elderly heterosexual couples who want to get married, they are crazy for wanting to do that and should probably be institutionalized on that basis, but sure, just give them civil unions.
Olivia liked this - Guest 1 month agoComment removed.
- datsyukfan 1 month ago in reply to GuestSavage came up with a punishment for Santorum that fit Santorum’s crime. Besides, even if Santorum weren’t an incompetent theocrat, he’s legendarily corrupt. If there’s a hell, Santorum will surely burn in it for all eternity.
- Yeah..if there’s a God, he’s going to have some mighty choice words for Santorum when it’s time. He’s the most sanctimonius, pontificating asshole I can think of, and even worse, I believe it’s mostly for show. He picks and chooses bits of the bible to use for his own purposes, and thinks nothing of scamming and cheating people.
- Jmmartin 1 month agoExcellent take on Saintoral (they just misspelled the family name) is indeed depicted as the wad of goo sometimes found on peep show floors. pRick’s problem is that his homophobia is dictated by his evangelical bent, which finds homosex such an “abomination unto the Lord” only stoning is a suitable punishment. When Saint Oral becomes president he will have the pick of all the boys before the others are burnt at the stake as fagots. (That means kindling, incidentally. I pointed this out to the people at Webster’s and they said that the original of “faggots” was “Brit schoolboy slang for freshmen,” i.e. gofers, yet some editions of the dictionary now carry the one “g”=two “g” Inquisitional doings as the origin of “faggot.” I won. Or perhaps not.)
- Fagot can be a burning ember, even slang for a cigarette, also termed a “fag” in some British areas. Yup, yup!
- Chaslie 1 month agoIt is sad that there are those who allow their sexual urges to control them instead of controlling their sexual urges.
- Guest 1 month agoever heard the proverb “the enemy of my enemy is my friend?” cause anyone that can piss off a gay person to this level will probably get all kinds of consevative support
- Gmuny2002 1 month agoI always thought he was an a-hole, now you’ve validated this for me!
- obamanation 1 month agoJust when I think Liberals can’t sink any lower, they surprise me and do it.
- Rick Drake 1 month ago in reply to obamanationA lot funnier than your avatar, which is showing disrespect for your President…but not surprising from a troll!
- Kristy Cole 1 month agoUsed to be MoJo had relatively reasonable commenters who kept things on-topic, not so much anymore I see. Take it over to your religious site will ya?
- anon 1 month agoI’m sure Google doesn’t have anything to do with the rankings of a Santorum search….
- Guest 1 month agoComment removed.
-
J Ascher 1 month ago in reply to GuestIn a loving, consensual gay relationship, anal sex is a mutual pleasure. Continual association of anal sex with pain or punishment is misguided at best – rooted in a misunderstanding and misapprehension of what sex can be and is. Sexual acts as punishment aren’t sex and certainly aren’t loving! -
saidhamideh 1 month agomake that 13,001 backlinks
- I’ve got an old IBM A21M laptop googleing Santorum and clicking on the top result at the rate of 10/minute for the past 6 months now,24/7.I’m am also helping keep the Google bomb going.
- Wow how do you do that??? I have an old iBM laptop and would be happy to set it up to do the same if you could tell me how.
- Guest 1 month agoComment removed.
- Well Lea, what are YOU doing on this site? I thought so!
- ‘Tis Moi 1 month ago in reply to Guest…another flamer in the closet…
- ‘Tis Moi 1 month agoThe str8 haters hate gays because they are jealous of out homosexuals
who aren’t afraid of sex & who are fully open about enjoying it.
They are afraid of their own sexual shadow & envy those who are
secure & open about themselves. They are sexually frustrated,
emotionally stunted, bullies…From this stems all of their vitriol. - Guest 1 month agoLets all focus on the health of the country. Hey the country might be crumbling before our very eyes but at least Chuck can marry Larry and thats all that matters. Please, put your selfish desires aside for now, lets get the country healthy, and then go ahead and try and ammend marriage laws or whatever you want.
-
IgorTheBabyMaker 1 month ago in reply to GuestGet the country healthy ? Do you know that if Santorum becomes president he wants to repeal all gay marriages, remove ALL forms of birth control (yes this means condoms) and force his conservative christian views on everyone ? He may as well declare war on the constitution. He would kill an already sick country. - The republicons have already declared war on our Constitution
- Wendy Johnson 1 month ago in reply to GuestDear Guest: I support equal marriage rights for ALL Americans, gay or straight. That being said, I am still willing to vote for candidates (such as Barack Obama) who disagree with me on this issue. I think there are plenty of good reasons not to vote for Rick Santorum besides his insane views, not just about gay marriage, but about gay people in general. For instance: I do not want to vote for someone who is so blatantly in the lobbyists pockets (show more
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01…. I do not want to vote for someone who wasted Senate time intervening in what should have been Michael Schiavo’s private decision about his wife Terri’s fate (
http://politicalticker.blogs.c…. I do not want to vote for a man who’s wife is only alive because of her own late-term abortion (
http://oursilverribbon.org/blo…), but who would forbid abortion to other women in her situation. I’m also not going to click on Dan Savage’s link, for all I think it’s funny as hell. Personally, I am going to do my best to increase traffic to all the sites out there that provide a record of what a totally lousy person Rick Santorum is in general, and… - A healthy country starts with healthy candidates. Santorum is NOT a healthy candidate.
- ‘Tis Moi 1 month ago in reply to GuestUnfortunately for you, we don’t wish to “wait” while decades of in-fighting occur on other topics before we are allowed our expressed rights as tax-paying Americans…
- Devilsadvertcat 1 month agoI would rather be in “Hell” with the Democrats, than in “Heaven” with the Republicans. if that is the way the theory is supposed to go. Where do I sign up Big D
- ArlenWilliams 1 month agoGrovel in the pig sty, Mother Jones, Mother Jones.
Till it’s in your ears and eyes, Mother Jones. -
mamacat23 1 month agoYeah, Rick Santorum is such a loving guy that when his wife miscarried, they slept with the dead child between them in the hospital, then took the corpse home with them to introduce to their other kids, then drove to the grandparents’ house (with the kids holding the dead baby) to introduce them as well. Real stable guy, there. And by the way….I don’t give a flying fig what the Bible says. It is not my holy book and the Constitution of the United States guarantees that I cannot be forced to adhere to it. Therefore it has no place in the election of a president. - I saw some article the other day that actually kinda-sorta tried to condone taking the dead baby home yada yada. It was like…..”ok, maybe some think this is a little creepy, but I guess it’s okkkkk”. No, people. It is not. It’s flat out freaking weird. And I’m no prude, ok? I have worked in the medical field, in hospice care, I have seen many dead bodies, and they don’t freak me out or frighten me, but taking your dead baby home and letting your children PLAY with it…and pretending the baby is playing with your live children……no, there is some thing very very wrong there.
- Wendy Johnson 1 month ago in reply to mamacat23Santorum is crazy-ass, on the subject of that baby he and his wife lost. He’s got photos that he used to show to newspaper interviewers, and his wife published a book full of letters to him. And you know, having miscarried myself, I can kind of understand. It’s wrenching, because no matter if the fetus was viable or not, or would ever have survived on its own, to you it’s a baby, right from the start, and you already love it. What I have no sympathy for, is that his wife’s doctors induced labor to get the fetus out of her, in order to save her life. So essentially she aborted, with her husband’s support, and now he wants to forbid other women who need the same, from being able to do so.
http://oursilverribbon.org/blo…
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Paul Brandeis Raushenbush
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Rick Santorum’s Political and Biblical Mistake
Posted: 02/18/2012 10:51 pm
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Sen. Rick Santorum has made a serious mistake.
On Saturday, the presidential hopeful was addressing a group in Ohio when he made the unfortunate assertion that Obama’s agenda is:
Santorum’s recent comments should be a major turn off to anyone who understand that while all politics are informed by values, religious and secular, we should be very wary when politicians begin to assert religious creedal tests into electoral politics.
Earlier this year I spoke with Senator John Danforth who has thought a lot about religion and politics. Senator Danforth reminded me that:
At the Detroit Economic Club, Sen. Santorum explained his position on income inequality between the rich and the poor saying: “There is income inequality in America. There always has been and hopefully, and I do say that, there always will be.”
Senator Santorum stated this hope for the inequality between the rich and the poor in Detroit – a city that has suffered from enormous deprivation in the past decades. As Charles Blow reminded readers in the New York Times: “Among the more than 70 cities with populations over 250,000, Detroit’s poverty rate topped the list at a whopping 37.6 percent, more than twice the national poverty rate.”
Mr. Santorum should be careful in his efforts to score political points using biblical mandates on the same week that he shows such callousness towards the lives of the poor. If we know anything about the concerns of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and of Jesus of the New Testament, it is that they had harsh words for the rich who grow richer while the poor suffer, and the inequality in America over the last 30 years has become biblically blasphemous.
Rick Santorum was wrong to make his campaign about religious orthodoxy, and wrong again about religious orthodoxy when it came to his own campaign.
Follow Paul Brandeis Raushenbush on Twitter: www.twitter.com/raushenbush
On Saturday, the presidential hopeful was addressing a group in Ohio when he made the unfortunate assertion that Obama’s agenda is:
not about you. It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phony ideal. Some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology.The first reason this is a mistake is that Santorum has decided to make the presidential campaign about religious orthodoxy and introduced theology into politics in an agressive way. His less than subtle message is that anyone who believes in the Bible, or even takes the Bible seriously, should be suspect of the President who is serving up ‘false teachings’ referencing Matthew 7:15 which reads: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Santorum’s recent comments should be a major turn off to anyone who understand that while all politics are informed by values, religious and secular, we should be very wary when politicians begin to assert religious creedal tests into electoral politics.
Earlier this year I spoke with Senator John Danforth who has thought a lot about religion and politics. Senator Danforth reminded me that:
The language of politics is different than the language of religion — politics is not religion. The language of religion is based on creedal affirmation, while the language of politics, when it works, is the language of compromise. To confuse politics for religion results in gridlock from the political perspective. To confuse politics for religion from the religious perspective is idolatry.The second mistake by Sen. Santorum is that his casting stones and judging President Obama’s biblical understanding comes at a time when serious questions have to be asked about Sen. Santorum’s own grasp of biblical teachings.
At the Detroit Economic Club, Sen. Santorum explained his position on income inequality between the rich and the poor saying: “There is income inequality in America. There always has been and hopefully, and I do say that, there always will be.”
Senator Santorum stated this hope for the inequality between the rich and the poor in Detroit – a city that has suffered from enormous deprivation in the past decades. As Charles Blow reminded readers in the New York Times: “Among the more than 70 cities with populations over 250,000, Detroit’s poverty rate topped the list at a whopping 37.6 percent, more than twice the national poverty rate.”
Mr. Santorum should be careful in his efforts to score political points using biblical mandates on the same week that he shows such callousness towards the lives of the poor. If we know anything about the concerns of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and of Jesus of the New Testament, it is that they had harsh words for the rich who grow richer while the poor suffer, and the inequality in America over the last 30 years has become biblically blasphemous.
Rick Santorum was wrong to make his campaign about religious orthodoxy, and wrong again about religious orthodoxy when it came to his own campaign.
Luke 6:20-21
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Luke 6:20-21 Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. ‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
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25 minutes ago (11:48 PM)
Since Jesus said the poor would always be with us, perhaps the author would think he is callous as well? I’ve met many happy people whom would considered economical
32 minutes ago (11:41 PM)
Excellent summary. Matthew 7:15 describes Santorum, not Obama.32 minutes ago (11:40 PM)
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Share your thoughts.Conservatives are mounting concerted campaign over Iran and Syrian intervention. Price of gasoline and free birth control help along with gay marriage issues are shifting sands in his campaign.
Some other observers are placing bets upon women under thirty, most getting pregnant outside of (legal) marriage taking his side. Not true. Logistically speaking that section hardly ever vote.
If Obama spares the Iran and does not push Syrian president Bashar al-Assad aside with arm twisting of few American allies and if he sticks to the posture, now freely admitted by the media, about not so secret, secret talks with Taliban and if he shuts the Jewish lobby in a dark closet, somewhere in the Oval Room, I see him getting ready to rock and roll, come November 2012.
Too many iffs and buts makes my prediction as unreliable as that of Nate Silver.
Hi Nate! Fishing in the troubled waters? bad boy.
…and I am Sid Harth@arabuhuru.org
Every vote, everywhere, should be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections
There would no longer be a handful of ‘battleground’ states where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in more than 3/4ths of the states that now are just ‘spectators’ and ignored.
When the bill is enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes– enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538), all the electoral votes from the enacting states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC.
The bill uses the power given in the Constitution to each state to change how they award their electoral votes for President. Virtually all of the major changes in the method of electing the President, have been by state legislative action.
In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state.
The bill has passed 31 state legislative chambers in 21 small, medium, and large states, and been enacted by 9 jurisdictions possessing 132 electoral votes – 49% of the 270 necessary to bring the law into effect.
Follow National Popular Vote on Facebook via nationalpopularvoteinc
It won’t.
President Barack Obama will get re-elected by at least 10 percentage points over whomever the Republicans nominate. (It wouldn’t surprise me if he wins by closer to 15 points.)
Electoral College will have Obama gaining from his 2008 result: 28 states, Nebraska #02 (Omaha), and District of Columbia – for 365 electoral votes. His minimum will be a vote count in the 370s. (It wouldn’t surprise if he reaches 400.)
Silliness is this belief that Mitt Romney – and only Mitt Romney – would narrow the gap. But if his party isn’t too excited about Mitt Romney – as they’re not terribly motivated to turn out for the primaries and caucuses – why would the rest of the country produce the opposite result?
I do agree that at this point, with these republican candidates and the woman’s vote at risk for the GOP, it looks good for Obama’s re-election.
Bush also won against an awesomely uninspiring Democrat. Of course, come to think of it, Romney is kind of a Republican’s Kerry.
On the other other hand, Obama is pathetically weak and seems to have a gift for absurdly ineffectual gestures. However, he does get 15% of the vote simply for being black — and he’ll keep that 15% literally no matter what he does.
That’s the clincher. I wouldn’t bet against Obama at this point unless I could get at least 5:1. Heck, I’m going to be voting for the guy — and I think he’s the worst president we’ve had at least since Hoover.
I think he has done a really good job under the circumstances.
In short, they’re betting that the majority of Americans are too stupid to realize where the problem lies. But I think they’ve miscalculated. Despite the brainwashing effect of Fox Snooze and right-wing talk radio, Americans have access to more information than ever before. And they’re not as dumb as the Republicans believe.
There is clear evidence that the Republican party will do anything in its power to gain control of the political process. Having witnessed their work in the debt ceiling, spending resolutions and contraception it is clear they have no shame and will ruin the nation to get their hands on the levers of power.
The ultimate goal of that power is seen in the work done to preserve insider trading rules that allow congressional officers the ability to flout laws that would jail an ordinary citizen. The laws passed over the last 20 years have allowed them the leeway to fix speculative ventures as seen in the mortgage debacle and retain their ill gotten gains through tax structure.
Mr. Silver cannot predict the next bit of foolishness from the republicans. The politics of division and exclusion will produce another inane crisis designed to mobilize the know nothing vote. His work does not predict as much as it defines; lagging indicators produce accurate descriptions. We can only hope the appalling republican behavior will work with the economic gains to turn out the voters that elected Obama in 2008. Hopefully, they will vote for congress this time, too.
I’ve read a large chunk of the comments thus far, and although I admire your ability to spark a substantive debate about what Obama should do to maximize his chances of re-election, I am perplexed than the legitimacy of your “model” doesn’t appear to have receive any attention at all.
As much as I admire most of your work, your forays into modeling and predicting the future are, to be charitable, silly. Your model doesn’t allow for all the intangibles, surprise developments, exogenous factors involved in how Americans vote. To name a few: personality of the candidates and their abilities to connect with voters over an extended period of time, financial resources, vice-presidential candidates (generally not a factor until Palin), relative quality of the ground games, unexpected domestic or foreign policy crisis (natural disaster, terrorist attack,), unexpected policy issues arising (e.g., the contraception battle), revelations of personal faults (tax evasion, corruption), debate performances.
Your basic conclusion that Obama has and will continue to campaign on a populist platform is both on-target and obvious. You don’t need any statistical mumbo-jumble to figure that out. Moreover, at this point, betting on Obama makes a lot of sense, especially given the quality and views of his likely opposition and nascent signs of an economic recovery. But trying to model the November election ignores the realities of campaigns and candidates.
Oh, and the judges (or at least the lower court judge) who overturned Prop 8 were appointed by Bush. But you can blame Obama for that too if it helps your world make sense.
While Obama lavished billions on Wall St., he completely turned his back on Main Street.
I voted for Mr. Obama in 2008, but I will not vote for him again. We need a change.
For his first election, Obama was schooled by nagging media types and PR advisers to put up with a certain winning campaign image. Now that the tides have turned, it isn’t really worth it any longer. For a more successful image management, Obama can’t make do with the old tricks. If they great lies persist, he may choose to hang back and ignore them as a BIG TRAP until they pass. There will always be some hungry media voice who’ll pick up the slack and make the refutation of great lies their beat.
If the Republican/Tea/Evangelical Party keeps choosing its nominees like it’s doing this year, adopting far-right positions and with incredibly weak, flawed, laughable and looney candidates, as well as changing national demographics, they can give up any hope of retaking the White House until 2028.
Perhaps instead the Republican/Tea/Evangelical Party should focus their efforts on retaining control of the House and regaining control of the Senate – but those efforts are slipping away also do to the presidential nomination battle being waged at the top of their ticket.
He is very late to the problem of high unemployment. About three years late.
As for being a populist, sure he has a humble origins story but he also has a tin ear much like Mr. Romney. Mr. Obama is aloof and abstract; he does not connect well to the working class.
It takes more, much more than the right words or a good speech. People have to believe in the candidate and he has to believe in them.
Again, before he became President and after he was elected, he was consulted about the various fixes that the Bush plumbing team was bungling.
President Bush handed President Obama the worst recession in 70 years, when WWII recovered the US economy. It simply was not Obama’s doing. Obama has been fighting the Republicans and has made better economic decisions than the Republicans have been advocating. But I must agree with Krugman that Obama is still not doing enough.
Some hope that a Democratic landslide will quench the tongues of those who would destroy the economy, doing far worse than what Bush did in the early 2000′s.
The choice is easily cast as between good and evil.
End sermon.
Bush wrecked this economy very deeply … no question.
It´ll take Obama at least another term to fix it … no question.
Let’s remember — in addition to being higher earners, a lot of these people are not stupid. And most people who are educated and well informed — whatever their income — are not going to vote for one of the Republican choices.
By the way, what have GOP accomplish in the last 4 years beside obstruction in Washington?
What have GOP and their candidates offer to America beside making false claim on religion and women contraception to stir up their base and red meat conservative?
What a joke. Romney paid taxes on a small percentage of his earned income, and has translated that so he has to pay very little tax on the immense amounts he receives for his “investments” – which apparently is all unearned (what a free-loader.)
We’re being scammed, people. Left and right.