Associated Press
Rick Santorum was the favorite in yesterday's Kansas caucuses, the first contest since Super Tuesday, but he still managed to exceed expectations with an easy victory.
Rick Santorum won the Kansas Republican caucuses Saturday, giving him momentum as he and his GOP rivals sprint towards Tuesday's primaries in Alabama and Mississippi.
With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Santorum had 51 percent of the vote, with Mitt Romney getting 21 percent, Newt Gingrich 14 percent, and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas 12 percent. [...]
Santorum's victory in Kansas means that he will win at least 33 of the 40 delegates at stake in that state as he seeks to squeeze Gingrich out of the race, leaving the former Pennsylvania senator as the sole alternative to Romney.
Romney's 30-point loss was the largest he's suffered in any of the primaries or caucuses held this year. Apparently, Bob Dole's endorsement didn't count for much.
Several reports noted that Romney won Wyoming yesterday, but it's worth noting that the former governor had already won the state, and yesterday was simply about awarding delegates.
Nevertheless, yesterday was not without upsides for Romney. He was blown out in Kansas, but the former governor did very well in Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands, picking up approximately 25 additional delegates away from the mainland.
The story out of Guam was especially striking: Romney won nine delegates thanks to the support of 207 people who showed up at the island's annual GOP convention.
Next up will be Tuesday's closely-watched primaries in Alabama and Mississippi, where polls show competitive three-way races. Romney has tried to lower expectations, but he enjoys the support of the party establishment in both states, and is spending a fair amount of time and money in both Southern states. A strong showing by Romney on Tuesday will give him added ammunition to say the nominating race is effectively over, and poor performances from Newt Gingrich may force the former Speaker from the race.
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In 2008 we sent Rick packing in PA- as we said back in the '50's, "Good riddance to bad rubbish!"
That said, he is well above Romney on the integrity meter, because he not only says what he believes, but believes what he says.
The same can be said of any sincere psychopath. It is NOT a reassuring or even admirable quality. It is also worth noting that Santorum has no qualms walking back anything he says if it causes enough aprobation. It is enough that he says the outrages to get the wink and nod out to people it would be in really bad taste to pander to directly, ie. misogynists, theocrats and racists.
In a future years, as a nation, we will look back on the 2012 cycle and think. "Gee, stuff wuz really nuts".
Entire careers in Academe await for explanatators of the nutzyenessification.
I'm right. You know I am.
Santorum may seem sincere on social issues, but on most issues, he's a team player who let's the money do the talking.
@Don 1.1...."The same can be said about any sincere psychopath"
Spot On!!!
Get the word out - tell every sentient human eligible to vote to get their papers in order (registration, photo ID's in uber-Red states, and polling locations) and be on the ready to occupy the ballot booth on November 6th, 2012!
On that date, no matter the Republican candidate on the ballot, we will need to vote out the old order of cultural stigma, social taboo and crony capitalism the Republicans have been promoting since the inglorious days of Tricky Dick Nixon!
Now the wicked folly is bundled in Rick Santorum! In particular, note the vote in Kansas - where they kill doctors!
Should Santorum storm his way into the Republican nomination, we common folk who can read, think and write will be in grave danger as our democracy will be big enough to watch us in our bedrooms, but small enough to stop delivering the mail! -Kevo
Very funny. But next time, warn me so I can avoid the spit-take.
It's amazing how men so opposed to gays and birth control can simultaneously be so receptive to the endowment of old men w/ Viagra...
Oh, I don't know. I think it makes sense. Right-wing politics and Viagra are both fundamentally about screwing people.
We should start making a list of what we can do to get Obama re-elected, like the example from Kevin. If all the intellects from this blog were to put their heads together we should at least come up with more ideas. Who knows something that is said may help tremendously. I'm thinking about resurrecting Flower Power myself, just kidding. (or am I)
"Are republican preyers really on your side?' I am sure that somewhere in Genesis it implied that screwing with women would cost you in the end. The first republican was probably Cain who decided he would do a hostile takeover of his brother projects.
There will be no cataclysm if the Republicans take the White House, this year or in four years. The birds will continue to sing, the grass will need mowing, the sun will shine.
The day a Republican takes the White House, the carefully spreading blackness of self-preservation greed and ideology will not be hastened, but will still continue to merely creep into our lives as it is today under the Republican led states, as it did nationally under Cheney and his hand-puppet Bush. When all the monetary, political, and religious favors are called in after a GOP White House win, called in to a suddenly cooperative Congress We, the People will hear or we won't hear about the chipping away of real religious freedoms, women's rights, worker's wages and benefits, and we may hear when the bells begin tolling on social safety nets during what was a recovering recession under Obama and on a generation about to retire. Beautiful words like "patriotism", "God and Country", "lets pull together", and "American resourcefulness" will tossed like flowers onto the political sewage of our future.
If the Republicans continue their methodology of undermining America, We the People will notice only gradually, our wages lowering and our working conditions worsening as labor unions are rendered toothless, our health care coverage diminishing as dictated by corporations, Big Oil and Savior Natural Gas starting to drill anywhere they want, and back yard pollution will increase as regulatory bodies and laws are slowly wiped off the map, making global warming redundant. Even then, the voices of Clear Channel and News Corps will still be working just as hard to reassure us that our worsening lives are caused by liberals, slutty women, Muslims or is it Chinese, anyone, everyone else, happily diverting our attention from the ones actually causing the damage.
But the sun will shine, the birds will still sing, and the grass will still need mowing and America will continue, one way or another. There will be no cataclysm.
Kansas....home of westborro church and all the intolerance and ignorance that go with it. Of course santorum would be the favorite. Was there ever any question??
Perhaps he will make phelps his running mate?
The delegate tilt of these primaries, giving Santorum 8 more votes than Mitt, isn't a surprise. This was Kansas . . . where the ALEC legislation laser pointed at women's genitals is evangelically touted by Rick. If you kill a physician providing legal, medically safe procedures, you cannot be found guilty of murder, for pete's sake.
I just saw a HuffPo headline about military personnel doing Virginity Checks on women arrested at a rally. Had to check to see if it was Kansas or the Middle East.
Santorum sits there and talks there is no Global Warming and our scientists are showing evidence that there is a rise in temperatures and it will have a bad effect on the earth. Santorum reminds of the time when the people in power had everyone believing the earth was flat and we were the center of the universe. It took how long to convince these people in power that the earth wasn’t flat and we revolved around the sun. Santorum says President Obama hasn’t done anymore drilling for oil and President Obama is on record for doing more oil drilling than the time of Bush. And has all this extra oil drilling resulted in lower gas prices and the answer is no. Santorum talks about his sick child and than denies that any healthcare insurance be given to people who cannot afford it or would not be given any healthcare insurance, because of a pre-existing condition or if they were sick. Santorum talks like our government, especially the Democrats, is killing people who are sick and we have Social Security, Medicare and Medicad that has helped people. And now a healthcare reform that helps people more. Aren’t you being a little double standard and hypocritical Santorum, when you would be responsible for really killing people and helping to encourage an environmental disaster. Santorum following that dark agenda that is full of lies, just isn’t going to cut it for people. People need someone better than the likes of you and your friends. Maybe you should go back making your million dollars a year in something else and more useful, because you are definitely not contributing to helping people that are poor or sick.
As Auntie M. seeks her Dorothy, Toto trees a Groundhog. The Wizaed having been exposed flees using Dorothy as his excuse and shield from Bible Belt peltings delivered by Cowardly Lions and Brainless Scarecrows. The Tin Man stiffly stands against the wind as rust invades his armor. Kansas ain't Kansas anymore.They have turned away from Council Oak and Shawnee Methodist Church towards the Santa Fe Trail of Tears.
Good Christian Jayhawkers riding the rail as the Pony Express passes by. Kansa, where soldiers make little rocks from boulders at Leavenworth.
Thump those Bibles and beat those drums as Kansas votes for a real nutjob!
That sign behind Santorum, The Courage to Save America? How much courage does it take to sit in a homogenized crowd and cheer as a Republican politician invokes the God word as much as possible while he makes a lot of the very same promises the other passing-through Republican politicians make?
How about a sign that reads: The Courage to Admit We're All Scared of Change.
I once heard that gambling gives poor people false hope, unlike praying to a shiny, bearded man in the clouds. Voting for Santorum is both a gamble and a prayer that his pious vocabulary is enough of a channel to God to save us all, without us having to do any actual work to save ourselves.
"Romney has tried to lower expectations, but he enjoys the support of the party establishment in both states"
This is an amazing statement that such Southern "bible belt" state leadership is not going for the religious Catholic guy who stumps on all the right hot buttons, like abortion and gays, but are going for the ultra-rich guy from Utah.
Here in AL is revealed a gaping duality of principles in this state, the professed religious ones vs. the political reality ones. It's fine to nibble on the crackers of piety, but when it gits down to feasting, religion seems to be just the dressing on the side of the political turkey dinner. The people of this fine state might be fooled, but not a GOP leader in AL doesn't know which side a' the bread the butter's on.
I salivate at the thought of Santorum as the nominee. Can we spell l-a-n-d-s-l-i-d-e? What's more, he will doubtless be the R frontrunner in 2016 and we can do it all over again.
Romney is leading Santorum in Illinois by 4 points and that is only because Romney will get a strong vote in the counties surrounding Chicago. Santorum is doing real well in the rural areas. The negative ads by Romney should begin any day now. On March 20 Dems should take a Republican primary ballot and vote for Santorum.
My predition is that Romney will do much better in the south than most believe - because that is where education and income inequality is highest.
This link provides a side-by-side comparision of US maps - political spectrum following the 2008 elections, income inequality, childhood poverty, lack of educational support, well-being (based off of economic and human health factors), and general poverty. Please take a look and allow 6 pictures to speak much more than 6,000 words...
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=10150851816613765&set=a.10150851816073765.512343.517453764&type=1&theater