It’s high time we discussed the biggest lie told about Rick Santorum that no one has the guts to back up with relevant facts.
Eric Erickson writes:
The concern many evangelicals have is on social and family issues, which many think could not be adequately discussed if Newt Gingrich were the nominee. We are starting to see the shift to Mitt Romney, begrudgingly, not because they like him but because reality is setting in that Santorum cannot win and Newt Gingrich has too much personal baggage for many evangelicals to get past.
In other words, “they like him but he can’t win.” I have to say that I seriously doubt that the “evangelicals” Erickson refers to are evangelical leaders, and especially not any of the long list of evangelical leaders who have wholeheartedly endorsed Santorum. Indeed, Erickson doesn’t claim that they are evangelical leaders, nor that they are people who have endorsed Santorum. He says they are “evangelicals”. Convenient. The claim is that Rick Santorum can’t win, and it isn’t backed up with any relevant facts.
I’m trying to be practical and not so naively idealistic that I would think that, at this point, anybody but either Newt or Romney will be the nominee.
In other words, “I like him, but he can’t win.” She noted “math”, as in poll numbers, but as we all know, the poll numbers were low — and the number of claims that Santorum can’t win were very high — all the way up to the vote in Iowa and Rick Santorum won anyway. Poll numbers should never be a basis for counting someone in or out. Rick proved that in Iowa. So, again, we have the lie that Rick Santorum can’t win and it is not backed up with relevant facts.
Santorum says, by the way, that the best opponent against Obama should not be judged on polling but rather on which candidate shows the strongest contrast with Obama. Of these two views, which do you agree with? Palin’s view that polls matter more than principles? Or Santorum’s view that principles matter more than polls?
From Jeremy Meyer reporting at The Denver Post:
“People say we like Rick Santorum but he can’t win,” Santorum said. “If the 68 percent of people in Florida who say they like me would vote for me, I would win.”
I’ve been on board with Rick Santorum since May of last year and I can’t say “Amen” loud enough to that. If I had a nickel for every time someone told me (since last May) that they like Rick Santorum but he “can’t win”, I could pay off the national debt. Rick Santorum not only “can win”, he can win handily. Matt Lewis recently laid out many of the reasons why: blue collar appeal, swing states, the Catholic vote, values voters, and the fact that he is eloquent and intelligent, meaning that he can make the case for conservatism.
Every time some pundit on television says Santorum can’t win, particularly those pundits who identify as “conservative”, Santorum’s base gets angry at whomever said it — righteous anger — and he loses momentum (which is why we get angry), and I would argue that those who keep saying he “can’t win” know that it has this impact and that this is why they keep saying it. They say it to push him down because they really do think he can’t win, even though they are too afraid to say why. Sarah Palin is only the most recent to pick up on this mantra and run with it. It’ s been going on for many months.
Santorum haters are very blunt with “why”, though. Dave Serchuk writes at Forbes — Why Rick Santorum Can’t Win: He’s Catholic.
I’m not sure how many times you have to really think about Sarah Palin dissing Alaska Right to Life in her book ‘Going Rogue
Rick Santorum is very fond of telling his E Pluribus Unum story about an exchange he had once with Howard Dean about the term. Most of the references to it online are found from the Left who turn it completely upside down: Santorum targets blacks in entitlement reform is the headline.
“I was at a debate with Howard Dean and we were asked what was the most imp quality of America and he said diversity. Diversity? Have you ever heard of e pluribus unum?….The greatness of America is people who are diverse coming together to be one,” Santorum said. “If we celebrate diversity, we lay the groundwork for that conflict. We need to celebrate common values and have a president that lays out those common values.”
E Pluribus Unum is extremely important. I’ll explain that in more detail later, but do pay attention to Rick Santorum when he talks about what America is about. Perhaps you won’t need an explanation if you put your mind to it and actually think about what America actually is.
Conservative bloggers are less interested in speaking about Rick Santorum’s speeches mentioning E Pluribus Unum and how conservatives are different from the Left on that topic than they are in defending Mitt Romney’s record at Bain, or Newt Gingrich’s time on the couch with Nancy Pelosi. While the one man who can inspire people about the greatness of America is pushed to the sidelines, we are told he “can’t win” because of polls, which continue to show low poll numbers because people are believing the pundits who say he “can’t win”. It’s a vicious cycle that Team Santorum is dedicated to breaking free from. We are tired of seeing article after article about polls saying Rick can’t win and mud-slinging between Newt and Mitt while our candidate is making the case for America and his case is being ignored.
In regard to social conservatism, some will say, “Oh, but Newt is Catholic and a social conservative.” Yes, he is a convert to Catholicism. I have nothing against converts, myself, because I am also a convert to Catholicism….and a divorcee, but I can assure you that when one converts to Catholicism, one is not immediately a saint. To the contrary, we Catholics believe that we have to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” and I’m not seeing much trembling from Newt. I see arrogance and ugliness. God’s grace is powerful, but man is able to resist it by his own choosing. Good habits are transformed into virtue through the grace of God. Bad habits have to be turned into good habits first, and then virtue comes. As a Catholic, Newt should know this. If he doesn’t know it yet, someone please tell him because I don’t think that telling voters a false story, for example, that one of your opponents forced Holocaust survivors to eat non-kosher food is a good example of having developed the good habits that lead one to virtue.
Character does matter, folks. So do bailouts, cap and trade, and the individual mandate which are the three major things that the Tea Party opposed and which were supported by both Romney and Gingrich. To suggest that Rick Santorum, who opposed all of those things, can’t win is to say that conservatism is a complete failure….and not just on social issues, folks. It suggests that conservatism is a failure across the board.
Rick Santorum not only can win, he MUST win. Matt Lewis is right in his assessment that Rick Santorum has what it takes to put fear into the hearts of those on the Left who oppose freedom. Santorum’s Catholicism and across-the-board conservatism means that he can win…as long as “conservative” pundits stop telling America that he can’t. Even if they refuse to stop playing this mind game with voters, Team Santorum will continue to work hard under the radar like we did in Iowa. As Rick Santorum says, “America is worth it.”
