So it’s all over the news and twitter that Santorum has dropped out. I’m going to leave it to you fine people to discuss what happened when Santorum dropped out, what Santorum dropped on, what we use to clean up the mess from a Santorum drop, and how Romney caused Santorum to drop out.
Also, open thread.
Edit: As someone on twitter pointed out, now everyone who claimed that God told them to run for President has failed and dropped out. So God has either one hell of a sense of humor, or s/he has a real mean streak.
UPDATE: Jennifer at 87 wins with “I would have gone with “Romney squeezes out Santorum.”
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
i ain’t cleaning it up, but thanks for sharing.
Mark S.
Now comes the UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH to eliminate the 19 point deficit Romney has with women. My friend, women are people just like corporations.
Keith
Pardon me while my sweater vest gently weeps…
goethean
Coprophiliacs <3 Santorum.
eemom
He dropped out to prevent the rest of the country from being reminded — or more likely finding out for the first time, in the case of most of his lizard-brained fan base — that the folks in his HOME STATE hate his guts.
redshirt
Clean up on aisle 5!
pragmatism
oh shoot. i have him in the “who will say ni-CLANG first” pool.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
It’s quite a coincidence that the campaign has been suspended before Sanctimonium went down in flames in PA. Interesting timing.
@pragmatism: Don’t despair yet. I wouldn’t put it past him while fighting for the general Confederate side.
Hunter Gathers
There isn’t enough bleach to clean up all the Santorum that has been smeared all over everything. Time for bleach tax cuts. To create jerbs.
Tonal Crow
Now the Republican War on Women shifts into high gear with a broad propaganda offensive.
gaz
So a closet homosexual, a sociopath, and a republican walks into a bar…
ooparts
I’m disappointed. I was hoping for a bloody fight all the way to Tampa.
Brachiator
So, now the general election contest has begun, for all practical purposes. It will be interesting to see how all the conservative pundits who previously were lukewarm towards Mittens now pivot to demonstrate how much they love him.
And Newt? Somebody is gonna put Newt in a corner and tell him to STFU.
eemom
….but watch the scumbag say it’s because of his sick child….like her condition ever influenced him at any other point in his bullshit crusade.
Martin
@Mark S.:
Because there’s nothing that women respond better to than UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH, and nonstop, mind numbing political advertising.
Chris
Thus endeth the last of the Not-Romneys.
With the Crazy Candidates gone, the burden now falls on Mittens to prove to their crazy base that he’s just as crazy and therefore deserving of their vote as Trump, Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich and Santorum were.
Soonergrunt
@gaz:
I see what you did there.
eemom
@Brachiator:
They won’t need to. Newt’s already getting down on his knees and wetting his lips for the Romdick.
Violet
I wonder if his timing has anything to do with his daughter Bella being in the hospital. The writing’s been on the wall for awhile. Interesting that he chose now to do it.
The way Republicans work, Santorum will be the nominee in 2016 unless Romney wins this year. That’ll be fun.
redshirt
@Brachiator: I’d say predictable. All the Wingnuts will be all “UNLIMITED MITTORY!”
And they’ll deny they ever said a word against him, and don’t love him to the depths of their black, wizened hearts.
Violet
What about Ron Paul?
Calouste
@ooparts:
Newt is still in.
grape_crush
And now Santorum will serve as a bridge over the gap between Romney and the right-wing Christian community.
Wouldn’t be surprised if part of the intent of Santorum’s post-Iowa campaign was to acclimate the Tony Perkins of this country to the idea that they’ll have to back a Mormon and make religion a non-issue in the campaign…that Santorum wasn’t their guy in the Establishment GOP, but that he was the Establishment’s guy within the Holy Roller set.
phil
so brave.. but seriously, he played the good soldier this time around, we’ll be seeing him again in 2016
SiubhanDuinne
I think it’s really interesting that on this breaking news story — as is almost always the case — the socialist government-owned statist CBC, of the many news outlets I follow on the iThing, was the first to push the story out. I expect it, of course, with news from Canuckistan, but you’d think a U.S. source might get there first on a story about the U.S. Presidential race.
ETA: the CBC story was picked up from the AP, but that doesn’t invalidate my larger point.
Calouste
From the GOS:
Telling.
TBogg
Well it is baby canning season….
shortstop
I’ll just slap up what I said in another thread (as I was watching the press conference):
Should I be surprised as well as totally disgusted that Rick Santorum is straightfacedly insisting he’s dropping out due to his deep devotion to his dying daughter—the same one who was dying while he ran all over the country ignoring her as he lectured same-sex parents about how much their children need both mothers and fathers?
What a piece of shit this man is. Truly immoral. This is a fitting finish to his revolting campaign.
gbear
@Mark S.: Herman Cain is on it for the Republicans. He told Fox News that more men like Romney because they are more intelligently informed than ‘other people’.
chopper
@eemom:
exactly. he saw his internal polls and realized this sucker’s going down.
Amir Khalid
21 comments and still no Veritas turning up to proclaim VICTORY! ? That boy’s slacking.
Chris
@Brachiator:
Yeah, they’ll pivot from all their “he’s not a real conservative” stuff to their “he’s the last best hope for conservatism!” But what’ll be even more interesting is to see what happens if he loses the election, and they’ll all revert once again to “oh, I never really liked him anyway.”
@Violet:
UGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Then again, that’s kinda how I called it. Two “RINOs” in a row fail to win elections for them, and they react by nominating the most insanely right-wing candidate since Barry Goldwater ran against Social Security.
ooparts
@Calouste:
Oh, do I dare to dream?
shortstop
Um, we’ll be “seeing him in 2016” the way we “saw” Dan Quayle in 2000. Rih is over and done with. This was his last hurrah, whether he knows it or not.
dmsilev
So apparently he didn’t actually endorse Romney, and I’m not even sure he mentioned the Mittbot by name. Can’t you just feel the love and unity that Mitt’s umpteen million dollars worth of negative ads have bought him?
Loneoak
@Mark S.:
Lol, no they’re not. Corporations are people, with all the attendant rights of personhood.
Violet
I hope The Daily Show or Colbert point this out on one of their shows. Better yet, SNL — it’s a bit more mainstream.
shortstop
@Amir Khalid: I think he has a math class to teach this afternoon. ;)
chopper
@TBogg:
that made me barf a little in my mouth.
gaz
Tbogg always manages to drop in and plant a one-liner that totally pwns the thread.
I love this man. Very much so.
It’s been said so many times, but:
TBogg, FTW!
Violet
@shortstop:
If Romney loses, the Republicans will be desperate for a win. But they will have nominated two RINOs in a row. I really can’t imagine which way they’ll go — Chris Christie, House of Bush III, or maybe Total Wingnut?
jlow
What if Noah dropped out when God told him to build teh ark? Religious zealots ain’t what they used to be.
Amir Khalid
Here’s my theory: It wasn’t God, it was the other fellow…
Brachiator
@Calouste:
In name only. The pressure will be on him to make it official and formally drop out.
@Violet:
There might be some third party rumbling, the Pot and Peace platform, and some hopes that he could steal the crazy pseudo libertarian youth vote from Obama, but otherwise, he is done.
And all those dreams of a contentious, brokered convention will now have to be put away. And California, and other states which thought they might actually influence the primary contest have had their hearts broken again.
Now it’s time for a new game, GOP VP Fever.
schrodinger's cat
@shortstop: I thought DougJ is on sabbatical this semester.
Richard
It would have been different if the Pope had told Santorum to run. You see, the Pope is infallible.
JCT
@gbear: Hey now, the Republicans don’t really hate women, they’re just having some trouble, uh, communicating their love and respect.
Caterpillars, “other people”, sluts and prostitutes. They’re so creative.
And I’m sure he will blame this in part on Bella’s illness — worthless, gutless asshole that he is.
gaz
@Violet: Fascists believe that Fascism cannot fail, it can only be failed.
So when one of their fascist candidates loses, it’s obviously because they were not fascist enough.
I’m still waiting for the zombie asshole ticket. Hitler/Pinochet 2016!
Rafer Janders
@shortstop:
Hear hear. If I had an infant daughter who was gravely ill, nothing, but nothing, would tear me away from her side, much less to leave her side for weeks on end in order to gallivant around the country in a delusional vanity campaign.
shortstop
@schrodinger’s cat: I can’t keep up. Math is hard.
Martin
@Brachiator: We never cared about influencing the primary contest so long as a Dem was the incumbent. We just wanted to save the money from an extra election. I expect we’ll be back on Super Tuesday in 2016.
Comrade Mary
@jlow: I’ll just leave this here.
FOO-bah, FOO-bah, FOO-bah, FOO-bah …
Chris
@Violet:
Christie would be their best bet.
He’s got the abraisive, bullying, shoving-weaker-kids-into-lockers-and-kicking-them-when-they’re-down attitude that the hard right base loves and adores. At the same time he’s got enough East Coast, rich-person cred that the big business base currently behind Romney – and a lot of mushy moderate and independent voters – won’t be afraid of him turning into another Huckabee or Palin.
He might be the first person since George W. Bush to bring the two different factions of Conservative Assholes together, actually.
shortstop
@Rafer Janders: It can’t be said often enough, although dog knows you and I try.
I will point out that exploiting your dying daughter to save face because your home state hates you as much as it did when it decisively kicked you out six years ago…that’s some damn fine parenting right there.
shortstop
@Violet: I think it’s too early to tell…sort of depends on whether they dial back the crazy between now and then.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Mark S.:
You would think the example of Meg Whitman in the 2010 California Governors race would pretty much put an end to the idea you can buy an election by annoying the public with endless campaign adds.
Tom Q
Santorum — or what he represented (right-wing resistance to Romney) — has already done his damage. Romney is demonstrably weaker than he was a year ago, as he’s shown major political tone-deafness and general unlikability over a lengthy period of exposure. I’d analogize what he underwent in the primary campaign to what happened to Mondale in ’84. Mondale, it’s forgotten now, was the establishment choice because he wouldn’t be tainted by the “extreme” elements. But over the course of Hart’s bruising challenge, Mondale not only showed how unenthusiastic party voters were about him, he ended up getting corralled into endorsing alot of the left positions for which the Reagan folk could easily demonize him. Add to the fact that, as in ’84, the economy looks better now than it did a year a year, and it’s easy to see Romney’s in trouble, no matter how much money Karl Rove throws at the president.
The GOP establishment won out in the end, but at far greater length than it did with Dole in ’96 or McCain in ’08 — and that was against a massively underfunded and crappy series of opponents. I think their grip is loosening (they might have lost this time, had Rick Perry — the only financially-competitive-with-Romney candidate — not been such a transparent moron). Especially if Romney goes down hard, the far right is going to be feral by 2016.
Mark S.
Newt will happily drop out if someone pays off his $4.5 million debt. Until then, it’s still
$50$500 for a picture with Newt.Richard
The situation with Santorum’s daughter makes the man seem even more appalling. Not just that he was futilely campaigning despite her illness, but his despicable stance on healthcare, which would sentence kids like his daughter to an automatic early death if the parents don’t have deep pockets.
dmsilev
@Amir Khalid:
The RomneyBot laid off all the trolls and outsourced the operation to a Nigerian spam house. So sad.
Comrade Mary
Oh, what the hell …
Neighbour
Me and you, Lord
Fanshawe
Sounds like more good news for McCain!
Martin
@shortstop: God’s will. Santorum’s artifact +4 Chastity Belt of Hypocrisy gets him a 100% successful saving throw against everything.
Mike E
It’s official: I won’t be voting repub in my primary…haz a sadd
jl
More important that Rih himself, or his campaign, is fact that GOP can now start process of sweeping the Santorum stuff under the rug.
TPM says Congressional GOP officially begins process of disappearing their GOPWoW (GOP War on Women). The big corporate national affairs media will be eager to help the GOP out, I think.
On other hand, so many state GOP efforts going on around the country, is there a will and way for national GOP to shut them down? Local and regional media probably more interested in reporting actual news if those efforts continue.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Oh, I guess is time now to remind everyone that Mitt Romney is a successful business man but unemployed like the rest of you because of the Obama recession?
I think so.
gaz
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Umm, that would require an assumption that these people are willing to learn from their mistakes, or learn from history, rather than trying to repeat it.
Isn’t that pretty much the antithesis of conservatism?
In a nutshell: YAY! let’s embrace the past, because that worked so well for us last time!
Their ideology is centered around the idea of repeating the same thing over and over (ex: Ni-CLANG =) ) expecting different results. Bill’s book has a thing or two to say about that…
wasabi gasp
God would never have let the Mormon win the home state. Rick can sleep soundly.
Triassic Sands
God has some sense of humor. All this time he’s been stringing Santorum along, letting him believe there was a purpose to his candidacy and allowing him to indulge in a ridiculous fantasy — that Rick Santorum would ever be the nominee of the Republican Party.
I guess those in Heaven who oppose cruelty to idiots finally prevailed on God to lift the veil from Rick’s eyes and let him see what everyone else has known from the start — Rick and his neo-inquisitional ideas, while wildly popular among a group of fringe true-believers in the GOP, hold no attraction to the moderates in the GOP (i.e., those Republicans who are only moderately insane), or to much of anyone in the group of endlessly confused and uncertain voters who call themselves “independents.”
justawriter
I do wish the Santorum family well, especially after reading reading about their child’s condition, because that’s what liberals do even for people who hope that all liberals will burn in hell.
priscianusjr
gaz
@dmsilev: ROFL!
Comrade Dread
You know, in the Old Testament, they used to stone people for saying God said something when that something didn’t come to pass.
Just saying, Rick.
cckids
@shortstop:
No, you shouldn’t be surprised. The complete hypocrisy of the man never fails. Even if Santorum (in some parallel universe) was a rabid leftie, whose views I agreed with, this alone speaks such volumes about his basic character that I’d never vote for him. Bastard.
And I’m speaking from a point of having a seriously disabled child, so I know full well what many parents go through. Can’t help but wonder who is caring for Bella, though, as both of her parents are running around the country.
No One of Consequence
@Richard:
I am not so sure Santorum has deep pockets, but doesn’t he have lifetime Senatorial Health Care coverage for him and his family?
Thank you Taxpayers!
– NOoC
gaz
@Comrade Mary:
I thought you were referring to this
before I clicked it. And it made me smile.
MacKenna
I may start believing in God if he or she keeps this up.
It’s a cinch if all of these Republicans end up in hell, and by hell I don’t mean fire and damnation but a world filled with liberals enjoying social programs and equality for eternity.
shortstop
@No One of Consequence: He made not quite a million dollars last year. When asked why he’d donated only a percent or two to charity, in contrast to Romney’s and Obama’s 14 percent each, he responded heatedly that Bella requires 24-hour care and that it’s quite expensive, not being covered by insurance.
No recognition whatsoever that people who don’t have incomes of a mil a year have children with Trisomy 18, and that those people need the kind of healthcare security Rih is fighting so hard against. Just no ability at all to connect those dots.
Did I mention that I think he’s extremely immoral?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@gaz:
And I quote Gaz for the truth lol
fasteddie9318
Pretty sure there’s a third option there, but I can’t quite put my finger on it…
@MacKenna:
Where’s that world? Can I live there?
FlipYrWhig
@Chris: I think it’s going to be Virginia gov Bob McDonnell, who has hardcore social-con cred but manages to suppress it just enough to put a happy face on his vileness. And I think if Scott Walker survives the recall, he’s going to run as the guy who liberal elites love to hate.
Ash Can
@Violet:
Who?
Chris
@FlipYrWhig:
It’s possible. I just think Christie has the most name recognition and the most popularity (in the national GOP, not in New Jersey).
WaterGirl
@shortstop: I hadn’t even seen the press conference or read about what he said, but just guessing by what a sleazy man he is I was guessing that would be the way he would play it.
It makes me sick. What a disgusting man. The name Santorum is a good fit. Who would have thought it was possible for me to loathe the man more than I already did?
Jay in Oregon
@shortstop:
Should I be surprised as well as totally disgusted that Rick Santorum is straightfacedly insisting he’s dropping out due to his deep devotion to his dying daughter
But I thought this was the most important election in the history of forever and the he couldn’t forgive himself if he didn’t stop the Blah Islamofascist Socialist in the White House when he could?
rikyrah
Bye Ricky
Rafer Janders
@No One of Consequence:
WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum released four years of federal income tax returns on Wednesday night, showing a sharp rise in his personal wealth spurred by his growing work as Washington-based corporate consultant and media commentator.
Santorum’s returns show that his federal income taxes rose from 2007, when he paid $167,000, to $310,000 in 2009, then dropped to $263,000 in 2010. During that same period, his annual income surged from nearly $660,000 in 2007 to $1.1 million in 2009 before slipping to $923,000 in 2010.
Santorum, 53, has sold himself in the Republican primaries as both a Washington outsider and a social conservative, stressing his family’s coal-mining background and his appeal to religious and working-class voters. His personal finances tell a different story, detailing the trajectory of a politician who grew more prosperous in the Senate and became a millionaire afterwards, at times capitalizing on his Beltway connections.
His 2010 tax returns show he made more than $550,000 in media and consulting fees – paid to him through a corporation he set up, Excelsior LLC. The previous year, Santorum made more than $820,000 in fees, also paid through the same firm.
Santorum’s wealth doesn’t come close to the multimillion-dollar fortune amassed by Mitt Romney’s high-finance prowess or Newt Gingrich’s smaller but still-lucrative blend of foundation and consulting work. But his newfound affluence reflects his close ties to Washington’s business and lobbying circles during his 12 years in the Senate and his smooth transition into their world after he left office.
….Last year, the former Pennsylvania senator disclosed investment and real estate assets totaling as much as $2.5 million. In his presidential financial disclosure spanning 18 months between 2010 and 2011, Santorum also listed $1.3 million in income as a consultant
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/15/rick-santorum-tax-returns_n_1280654.html
Jennifer
I would have gone with “Romney squeezes out Santorum.”
Soonergrunt
@Jennifer: Hahahahahahaha!
WaterGirl
I can’t bring myself to watch the video, but from the photo with the video, it looks like Santorum’s whole family is standing behind him.
If this is all about Santorum’s sick daughter (yeah, right) I just have to ask… Just who is with this sick and dying daughter while the whole family is on stage talking about quitting the race because, you know, it’s all about her??
CynDee
@fasteddie9318:
3rd option: He has a sense of the Common Good and intervened because he saw that certain individuals aren’t too good with the ten commandments and therefore probably shouldn’t be promoted into a larger and more destructive venue.
That said, sure wish we had all those stupid campaign dollars for the hungry, the homeless, the ill, the jobless, and the hopeless . . .
Arm The Homeless
@FlipYrWhig: The more I watch the Klown Kar, the more this seems like a probable outcome.
I would be willing to wager that the eventual VP pick will tip the hand of the Mitten’s campaign. If polls look close, I would expect them to go with the “safe” option of McDonnell. I see the talk about Portman as a red-herring, since Ohio is less important this cycle than VA, and both are less important than FL.*
For this reason, if the rumors are fast and thick about a VP pick such as West, you know their internals are looking grim, and that they have to pull a McCain and find themselves a ‘game changer’
*In all honesty, if the Mitten campaign cannot lock up all three (OH,VA,FL) there is no way he makes up those totals in places like NM and CO, but the numbers are still plausible as long as he wins FL.
fasteddie9318
@CynDee: That’s a third option, but not the one I had in mind.
Triassic Sands
@Arm The Homeless:
Romney’s ideal VP pick may not be an option — someone like, say, Rubio’s wife.
In GOP calculus that would get him TeaBaggers, women, Hispanics, and Florida.
Romney has so many holes to fill, he may need to resort to naming a panel of VPs.
Lojasmo
@shortstop:
Oh bur he’s catholic, so we can’t know that his dying daughter doesn’t WANT him far away on a quixotic quest for the presnitzy, or something, right…burnsbq?
Jennifer
@Triassic Sands: Romney has so many holes to fill, he may need to resort to naming a panel of VPs.
He could fill one of those holes with Santorum.
kc
Jennifer, I am totally stealing that. :D
gocart mozart
@Violet:
They will go full wingnut. Santorum/Sherrif Joe 2016.
gocart mozart
(with apologies to Dean Martin):
When you leave the race,
A total disgrace,
That’s Santorum
KS in MA
@Richard: LOL!
My theory is that God told them to run so that we all could see that wingnuts are actually unpopular, even within their own party.
ETA: I see Triassic Sands got there before me. Good for you, Triassic!
Friday Jones
I thought I had a good one when I said to my DH, “Santorum pulled out!” He chuckled and said, “Well, that’ll be the first time.”
Gex
Santorum should be forced to carry his dead presidential campaign to term.