I don’t care what the PPP polls show, a candidate who doesn’t think women should work won’t win a general election, no matter how principled, Burkean, populist a case he makes for an all-male workforce.
IMHO, Santorums’ female trouble may be so bad that it hurts him not just in the general but maybe even in the primary. Nevertheless, he’s probably right that the GOP is running out of fools, that’s it’s quarter-to-three, there’s no one in the place except Rick and Romney, that it’s time for some hot man-on-man action:
“We think this is a two-person race right now,” Santorum said on CNN’s “State of the Union” yesterday, “and we’re just focused on — on making sure that folks know we’re the best alternative to Barack Obama and we have the best chance of beating him.”
I’ve always said that in this primary, Republican voters love the bad boys. Now it’s come down to a guy who wears sweater vests versus a guy who wears magic underwear. Who’s bad?
Gin & Tonic
Props for the Johnny Mercer ref.
trollhattan
There’s time left for one of them to take flight lessons and crash a few planes. That’s manly.
Mark S.
LAME-O
gex
I’m guessing Rick is equating being a misogynist with being manly. I know it is pretty trite, but I think being that hung up about women stuff and women’s status indicates a massive closet case. Hyper religiosity is the refuge of some of those dudes.
All the Catholic closet cases I know have views very similar to Mr. Frothy.
ETA: They never worried too much about birth control availabilty, because they’d have to fuck a woman for it to be relevant.
eemom
Post title fer teh WIN.
Villago Delenda Est
@trollhattan:
Well, we saw how well that worked as a strategery in 2008…
General Stuck
Probably the most damning poll number for Romney found in the new CBS poll, along with his 26 to 40 favorable to unfavorable number, not to mention an 18 percent turnaround of indies compared with Obama, who now is owning that important group
Mitt Romney
does understand does not understand
31 % 58 %
No other GOP candidate. except Gingrich, has anywhere near that number, as Obama sits at 54 % does understand your problems. Stick a fork in the Mittster for a general, these kinds of negatives for basic character issues, are near impossible to turn around once they hit such a low point.
And Santorum is even at 37 percent each, and he hasn’t been presented at the wingers debutante ball yet.
Sarah Proud and Tall
Nice.
JGabriel
Santorum is an idiot. I know I’m not saying anything new there, but Gingrich is heavily favored to win Georgia (Gingrich’s home state) on Tuesday, and is roughly in a statistical tie with Romney and Santorum in Ohio.
If Gingrich takes two or more states in Super Tuesday, the media narrative will be that it’s still a three
personmanjackass (don’t be mean to Balthazar)Republican race. The smart rhetoric would be to emphasize the ongoing competitiveness until after Super Tuesday..
sj660
I’m sure the GOP electorate is feeling the same sense of urgency we did in 2008. Oh, wait, that went into the summer.
Yes, I know it’s different. But it’s not “late” or whatever. It’s that the candidates suck.
The end.
Villago Delenda Est
@JGabriel:
You can bet your last simoleon that the Village vermin, always eager for a horse race, will take that line.
Steve
The Not-Romney crowd really wants to whittle the field down to 2, but it is proving difficult to give either Gingrich or Santorum the fatal push. Maybe people will finally get over the idea that there is some mythical “Establishment” that has the power to just snap its fingers and get the result it wants.
sj660
Also,
balldelegate math don’t lie.Romney needs ~44% of the remaining delegates. Unless he can blow Rick, Mitt AND Paul out on Super Tuesday, that’s a tall order with less than 100 winner-take-all delegates after Super Tuesday.
sj660
@Steve: I don’t know if it’s an establishment, or whatever you want to call it, but there are a large number of unbound national delegates in this race, and a large number of bound and unbound delegates that will be decided at state conventions. Maybe enough to tip the nomination.
But this group of folks could just as easily revolt Tea Party style. But anyway, your average Joe GOP primary voter isn’t really going to get much say.
mclaren
In his Daily Kos diary, this fellow has done the math and suggests that at this point, no Republican candidate will be able to acquire enough delegates to avoid a brokered convention.
Some of you might recall that I predicted this as a strong possibility several weeks ago.
I repeat my long-reiterated prediction that Mitt Romney will not be the Republican nominee in 2012.
Whether or not we get a brokered convention is less clear. Personally, I’d bet on it.
Steve
@sj660: But there’s no consensus among the people who have influence over the process. They don’t all meet in a smoky room somewhere and decide the fate of the party. They all want different things.
This whole primary thing is kind of fun because the operative vibe is that there are no bad outcomes. Now, I might live to eat those words, but still.
Left Coast Tom
@JGabriel: Cool. That would actually be my Dream Result for this ridiculous GOP circus: Frothy is the Northern Not Mitt, Newtie is the Southern Not Mitt, Mitt wins whatever states are willing to have him (or, whatever states have caucuses where the GOP simply can’t count shit), and the idiots who are paying a bazillion dollars for this clown car show get to pick up the pieces.
scav
I’ll OT this here rather than interrupt the mullet fest next door. Leak exposes how Heartland Institute works to undermine climate science. Well, that’s what the Guard has it as, although the actual source is still trying to confirm it’s a real leak. Libertarians and Koch and misinformation, might get nicely interesting.
BigSouthern
I just hope Virginia makes me proud for the first time in the past four years and pushes Paul ahead of Romney in the primary. God, it would be so sweet for that bizarre gnome to carry a whole state.
shortstop
Post title’s very good, but Mercer wordplay’s even better.
cmorenc
There are exactly two ways Obama could lose to whomever emerges form the GOP toxic clown show with the nomination:
1) a substantial uncontrollable negative turn of events, such as cascading European economic problems send strong enough shockwaves into the US economy to dramatically reverse the recovery this summer;
OR
2) we get overconfident and fail to take Santorum, Romney, or Gingrich seriously enough to put in the necessary effort to win the battle this fall.
I do agree that provided we don’t get too cocky about it and team Obama (including us) diligently work to do our parts to make sure we win this fall, we should beat any of these clowns by at least four to ten points. However, what’s most dangerous to us is to assume it’s in the bag because the GOP candidates momentarily look like such toxic clowns that, who could possibly vote for them beyond the 27%? Bad way to approach this election for those wanting Obama to be reelected.
jl
‘Bad’ is not happening. They will have to settle for egregious. Too bad for them.
AnotherBruce
One thing about a clown car is that it crazily veers and swerves all over the road crashing into things and costing super clown Pacs a lot of money. And unfortunately for the Pacs the police in Clown Town can’t do anything about that. It’s kind of like a demolition derby, with clowns.
Warren Terra
I’m not going to argue for the Relevance Of Ron Paul as a general proposition, but the loony old racist might well have won the Maine Caucuses – Santorum sure didn’t come close. And Newt still could sweep the Old Confederacy.
In terms of doing as much damage to Willard as possible, I’d guess a two-man race, Rick Versus Rmoney, might be best. But Rick hard hardly sealed the deal.
Triassic Sands
Santorum’s national showing is just like all the GOP front runners — they owe their position to people not paying attention. As soon as they reach prominence, people take a look and gag.
Taking national polls right now about an election in November when we don’t even know who the Republican candidate will be is utterly meaningless. When people get to know Santorum, some will love him (those who long for a theocracy), but many more will projectile vomit.
The Other Chuck
If Newt drops out there will be a clear winner. Crazy Uncle Ron just doesn’t have the votes. And I just don’t see Newt keeping the grift going without a payoff.
clayton
@Sarah Proud and Tall: better than you,way better than you, even on your best day.
David Koch
Fear the frothy mix!
Yutsano
@clayton: Your obsession was almost tolerable. Now it’s just trite. Not your blog. Want to write the rules? Start your own.
Bill H.
I don’t think women, those in the “traditional family,” should have to work. I think any woman who wants to work should be able to do so on an equal footing with any and every man. But I think that any man who wants to be the sole support of a wife and children, because that is the choice jointly made, should be able to do that. When that is not possible, because two job households are a necessity to sustain life, then this nation is not what it should be.
handsmile
Following up on mclaren’s comment above (#15), there was an excellent post yesterday at TPM that outlined the scenario of a brokered GOP convention in August: “What Are the Rules If the GOP Contest Goes to Convention?”
It addressed the varied processes by which states allocate delegates, the latitude delegates might possess once voting begins at the convention, and the hurdles confronting any new candidate emerging from Tampa Bay. The article also provides links to other analyses (e.g., Ed Kilgore, Real Clear Politics) on these matters.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/what-if-the-gop-contest-goes-to-convention.php
Also too, mclaren: I have been writing here for some time as well of my belief/suspicion that Mittens will not be the 2012 GOP presidential candidate. At the NYC Balloon Juice meet-up on Sunday, I was alone among the eight people sitting around the table with that opinion. But if I harbor any doubts about Mittens’ coronation, there are none whatsoever that any of the other klowns still in the kavalcade will be selected.
clayton
@Yutsano: I’m just pointing out that one FPer is heads and shoulders above another — and that other is writing stuff that was commonplace on the intertubes years ago.
Are you really standing up for outdated porn? Seriously? And judging that as better content than what DougJ puts up? Seriously?
I don’t see much to defend, but YMMV.
Yutsano
@Bill H.: FWIW my brother’s wife is the primary breadwinner in their household. When they have children (hopefully soon!) then he will be the primary caretaker. That is their decision, and I respect them for making it.
Jewish Steel
@clayton: Wow. You’re a real bloghero. Some ought to give you a medal.
Yutsano
@clayton: Griping on an FPer’s postings is one thing. Attacking them when they’re just commenting? That’s petty and obsessive. No one is interested in your beef with Sarah.
@Jewish Steel: The view from that cross must just be amazing.
Jebediah
@Bill H.:
When rightwingers reminisce about The Good Old Days ™ they usually seem to be thinking of a time when it was the norm to have one breadwinner and one home-maker. But they seem completely unable or unwilling to make the leap to supporting living-wage policies to make that possible. One of many, many reasons I can’t take them seriously.
And I agree – when so many families don’t have the option of one breadwinner, something’s gone wrong.
Darnell From LA
The modern GOP is “severely” extreme, even compared to their conservative past:
Wow. Just fucking wow. Next thing you know the GOP will try and repeal women’s suffrage.
JGabriel
Via Darnell From LA:
Nixon. That fucking commie.
.
Donut
Santorum Surge II: the Quickening, is great news for John McCain.
John H
I think the Rs are up Mitt Creek without a paddle.
Steve M.
Er, Bob McDonnell?
I’m not saying you can win if you stick with that assertion. You have to repudiate yourself on it. But you can win if you once believed it (and probably secretly still do).
Steve M.
But I love this:
How sad that reality doesn’t live up to right-wing dreams.
Samara Morgan
Its the return of the White Patriarchy Social Cohesion Model.
Madmen is nostalguie de la white supermajority.
The conservative magical thinking on this is that if they can just get rid of Barack Obama everything will go back to the way it was.
Samara Morgan
@Jebediah: White Patriarchy Social Cohesion Model.
unfortunately for conservatives, that was destroyed when blacks and women got the vote.
El Cid
@JGabriel: In fairness, I think we often forget that back then, conservatives’ views on contraception were, em, colored by their desire that certain population types be prevented from overbreeding.
In other words, they used to not just complain about how there were too many black babies bein’ borned, but wanted to do something about it, especially after all those good government types made it harder to forcibly sterilize poor women.
Contraception used to occupy in the conservative mind (and in the Ehrlich-style population number first obsessives) a status akin to Raid in addition to its Reefer Madness incarnation for white middle class types.
Marc
@Steve M.:
Santorum has no appeal outside the faithful. He also has a habit of saying nasty things and comes across as bitter, dour, and complaining about how the USA is going to hell. Gloom and doom radicals of any persuasion just don’t do well in US politics.
He has the same personality problems that Mondale did, and I’d bet on an election close to Reagan-Mondale (in the popular vote) if Frothy got the nod.
Emma
@cmorenc: I think Obama’s not such a fool as all that, do you? He understands campaigning the way Bill Clinton’s original team way back in the day understood it — you’re in it to cut the other guy’s heart out and eat it. They’re not going to let up, whatever happens at the Republican end.
rikryah
AND
This is before the public becomes hip to the hiding of the tax returns, and that he gave his sons 100 million tax free.
the thing is, the Obama Campaign hasn’t even truly begun with Willard.