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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Man-on-dog bites man

Man-on-dog bites man

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Santorum has no shot at the presidency anyway, but….

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.”

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.

[…..]

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….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.

I’m hoping this unfortunate turn of events becomes the subject of a Michael Gerson or Lee Siegel column.

Reader Interactions

33Comments

  2. 2.

    geg6

    Heh. I know I’ve given it a couple dozen clicks. Savage’s page, that is. Not Man-on-Dog’s.

    Now if only we could find a way to do the same thing to Toomey…

  9. 9.

    jacy

    @DougJ:

    Sullivan’s back today, thank dog. Not that I love Sullivan unconditionally, but if I had to read one more of the thoughtful musings of Conor Freidersdorf, I think I might have done something drastic.

  11. 11.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    Go Dan Go!

    I read awhile ago he was looking for bloggers to help with the site.

    Also2. Please say I’m not the only one who read the name Skidmore and immediately thought “Hur, Skidmark!”

    [Update: HIs name is MARK? Oh God, Bwahahaha! Wooo!]

  12. 12.

    feebog

    I can’t wait until the first national Republican primary debate. It could only get crazier if they added Jan Brewer to the mix.

  13. 13.

    bozack

    Is it really that bad a thing for a candidate if the #2 or 3 hit for his name is a sexual neologism? I mean, if the hit were for his previously expressed support for murdering kittens, or something, I could see it. But a neologism based on his name?

  14. 14.

    ruemara

    Heading OT, but there’s a Carly for Ca ad on the sidebar here and it has a pic of Boxer & Washington with the copy that 30 years in the senate is too long. Oh Carly, you have no idea what to do with advertisement, do you? Visually, you’ve linked your opponent with a founding father-THE Founding Father, in fact. Advertising fail.

  15. 15.

    gex

    This is where we can have a very useful debate on the *tone* of gay people while good people like Santorum do the cruelest and rudest things possible, but politely, so it’s all okay.

  17. 17.

    cat48

    Hysterical that Wiki has given “Santorum Neologism” its very own wiki page to go along with the offending blog.

  19. 19.

    MattF

    And yet, Santorum manages to get on the various lists of more-or-less respectable conservatives. It’s astounding that bigotry is so acceptable on the right– the fact it was only an extraordinary set of circumstances that’s made Santorum pay a price for it gives a teensy hint about what’s really happening.

  21. 21.

    WereBear

    A Savage triumph!

    Heh heh. We use tools they don’t know how to use.

    I’m remembering a brilliant bunch of comments on McCain’s website during the 2008 campaign, regarding the McCain merchandise; especially about the (golf) ball washer.

  22. 22.

    Sean

    … and if Santorum’s web team tries to over-optimize or otherwise manipulate his search results, he runs the risk of incurring a Google penalty against his site – not good when you’re running for office.

    –Sean

  24. 24.

    Mike in NC

    Santorum’s own site, America’s Foundation.

    What a self-important douchebag. He couldn’t get elected dogcatcher at this point.

  25. 25.

    bmcchgo

    I’ll just take a victory lap here as one of those trailblazing bloggers (formerly of That Colored Fella’s Weblog) that contributed to the Google bomb that birthed Spreading Santorum. I even had a link on the web home page there for awhile…

    Good times.

  31. 31.

    RSR

    I’m late to the party on this thread, but hell, that’s funny that the http://www.spreadingsantorum.com/ site is still so successful.

    The ‘frothy mixture’ has recently popped up in my mind a few times (purely on thoughts of politics, I assure you) and I wondered how viable it still was. Glad to hear the good news.

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