Associated Press
Reagan loved his jelly beans, and Santorum loves his Reagan.
Jed Lewison wrote yesterday that Rick Santorum is "so desperate for gravitas," he chose to deliver "a foreign policy speech at a jelly bean store" so voters might connect the former senator to Ronald Reagan. I thought Jed was kidding.
He wasn't. This is actually part of Santorum's new strategy to get people to take him seriously.
Mr. Santorum spoke before a crowd of 300 people at the Jelly Belly Candy Company [in Fairfield, California], a most unlikely setting for what was billed as "a major foreign policy speech." But there was a connection. President Reagan loved Jelly Belly jelly beans and had a jar of them in the Oval Office. There are numerous mosaics made of jelly beans of the former president in the Jelly Belly headquarters.
"We need someone who is not going to be the Etch A Sketch candidate," Mr. Santorum said, referring to a Romney aide who talked about resetting the campaign, like shaking an Etch A Sketch. "Ronald Reagan didn't say one thing in front of one group and something else in front of another."
First, Santorum has an odd sense of scheduling. The Maryland and Wisconsin primaries are Tuesday, and yet, he's delivering a "major" speech in California, which won't hold its primary until June -- 10 weeks away. Second, if Santorum is looking to improve his faltering stature, perhaps the Jelly Belly Candy Company isn't the place to audition for the role of leader of the free world.
But what about the speech itself? Most of it was filled with vague platitudes, but one line jumped out at me: "This president has alienated ally after ally, particularly the state of Israel."
As a substantive matter, that's pretty foolish -- by any fair assessment, President Obama has strengthened key international alliances and improved the nation's global standing. But given the larger context, I'd remind Santorum of a recent president who pushed for an Israeli settlement freeze, urged Israeli inaction in Lebanon, and said Israeli efforts in the West Bank and Gaza "damage the self-respect and world opinion of the Israeli people.'"
The president? Ronald Reagan. In fact, a Haaretz piece recently ran this headline: "If Obama treated Israel like Reagan did, he'd be impeached."
Maybe someone should send Santorum a copy.
Leave a Comment:
If Mr.Santorum can not directly speak to domestic issues without dragging in his morality, what is the expectation of rationally dealing with people of another religion entirely?
Didn't you know the Pope went to Israel and apologized, so Santorum doesn't "hate" Israeli's - it's the other G-dless heathens he wants to "bring to (his) G-d"......
From yesterday on PolicyMic...a Brit wonders about the Jellybeans: http://www.policymic.com/articles/6207/rick-santorum-jelly-belly-speech-sugarcoats-his-misguided-foreign-policy/experts
I heard that Saint Ronald had a special like of the red ones! Does that make him a commie and Santorum a commie lover?
I keep hearing about this "Santorum" lately. Is it something Latin? I guess I will have to Google it. . .
Are the black jelly beans in a smaller bowl?
Candidate should stop invoking Reagan as if he were a saint. Just be yourself and speak to solving today's problems
Yes, Reagan was partial to jelly beans over other candy, but he didn't let the love of jelly beans rule his entire perspective. He did, if I remember, set the jelly bean bowl down when needed and returned to the business of running the entire candy store with all it's diverse sweets. Santorum has demonstrated he would clutch his jelly bean bowl and let the rest of the store fall to ruin.
When I first heard he was running I thought it some kind of Joke . Seems my first impression was correct.
Not meant to be a
factualreality based candidateIs Santorum running for president or Pope? We should remember that when Saint Ron took over from Jimmy Carter. the "debt crisis" consisted of a $56 billion deficit and a $1 trillion debt. It had taken 2 centuries, 2 World Wars, a Civil and sundry other wars, but we were there...$1 trillion in debt. When Ron left office it was a $2 trillion debt. The next democratic administration showed a budget surplus, but then, the following republican made Saint Ron look like Jack Benny! It's time for the plutocrats to belly-up to the tax bar and PAY BACK the debts THEY ran up!
This is a story from The Onion, right? The truly frightening thing about this, if it is true, is that polls still show that approx. 30% of Republicans think this guy should be in charge of the launch codes. Romney's VP? Eeee.
In keeping with the absolute spirit of Reagan's policies, he should be offering to sell weapons to Israel's enemies in Iran. Otherwise he is just a poseur.
Leader of the free world? Really, Charlie? I'm pretty sure the Presidency lost any last claim to that somewhere between 2003 and 2005: not just no longer leader, but not really part of the free world anymore, either.
Is Rachel out of the office? I'd have guessed at least part of the reason would be to stuff the audience with uniforms from Travis AFB (Air Mobility Command's biggest wing is based there), which is also in Fairfield. The Air Force loves them hyper-christians.