While it is definitely the season for Republicans to put their candidates through the thresher of primary politics, I think Dan McLaughlin did a great thing by highlighting “Good Newt” in a speech that Gingrich gave to the NRA earlier this year. (Followed by Good Newt Strikes Again) It’s important that while we vet our candidates most notably by focusing on their flaws, we remember that this field of candidates includes some damn fine folks, and some really skilled politicians. I think we need more posts and discussion about their strengths, certainly relative to President Obama.
So this is not about Rick Santorum’s weaknesses or baggage. You can find those if you’re inclined and you won’t have to leave RedState to do so.
No, this is about what I think is Rick Santorum at his best: a full room, handheld mic, and no teleprompter. It’s Santorum at the Rockingham County Nursing Home in Brentwood, NH last night. The video is at C-SPAN.org and it’s about two hours long. You don’t need to watch or listen to the whole thing, but it’s a great example of a hard-working guy working a room while demonstrating not only a mastery of policy and its implications, but also a philosophical defense of conservatism. And throw in an angry questioner or three.
Highlights include:
- 40:00 A great discussion of the history of the Social Security Trust Fund surplus and its connection to the ever-expanding federal government. Not for nothing, the Daily Caller tried to pull out this snippet and declare “sacrilege!” Not sure if the author watched the whole video or just got an email from some other campaign.
- 47:00ish Santorum telling a packed house at a nursing home that we need to raise the retirement age, and why.
- 1:21:45 Responding to the fact that one of Santorum’s nephews is not exactly on message. RedStaters will appreciate this quite a bit.
- 1:49:26 on another candidate’s “electability.”
Rick Santorum has his weaknesses, but he’s not without some considerable talent as well.
Moe Lane
PG DeFreese
Victoria Coates
Daniel Horowitz
Dan Spencer
This is a welcome sanity break. Thanks, Mike.
spainishirish (Diary) Thursday, January 5th at 9:23AM EST (link)Santorum’s admittedly late speech to supporters after his Iowa near-victory also revealed a substantive, effective politician. Contrasts and meat grinders have their place, but soon we must start to think about the real goal here, and that is replacing President Obama. Santorum demonstrated Tuesday night why he certainly would be better, and I’m certain there are other instances of other candidates who have done the same in recent days. I might stop lurking once RedState makes the transition to evaluation of a candidate’s merits vs. the other guy’s weaknesses.
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Freedoms Truth (Diary) Friday, January 6th at 1:40AM EST (link)Santorum on Tues night had me at ‘freedom’, but his grandfather’s big hands was also a great line.
Come on, folks, even those of you who think Santorum is unelectable, if you watched Santorum and Romney on Tuesday night back to back like I did, you had the same reaction that both I and liberal Chris Matthews had: Santorum had heart and spirit and eloquence and Romney was … like a game show host.
Freedoms Truth,
Travis Monitor – http://travismonitor.blogspot.com
Austin, TX
Same talents as Obama.
mbecker908 (Diary) Thursday, January 5th at 9:31AM EST (link)Glib, works a room well.
Many of the same problems as Obama as well. Not just an “empty suit”, no suit. No executive experience, is a nanny state maven, just nanny’s for different stuff. No proven desire to follow a conservative agenda or even work with conservatives.
No thanks. Hell, I’d vote for Sarah Palin first.
Seriously flawed and flippant attacks on Santorum
Freedoms Truth (Diary) Friday, January 6th at 1:48AM EST (link)Santorum spent years in Congress compiling a solid, substantive, conservative record. claiming he’s not conservative is a seriously flawed and flippant attack on Santorum.
“No proven desire to work with conservatives” … WHAT?!?
Club for Growth shows he DID support conservative tax-and-spend, voted FOR welfare reform, opposed TARP, FOR balanced budget amendment, and more …
http://www.clubforgrowth.org/whitepapers/?subsec=137&id=902
“Santorum has consistently supported broad-based tax cuts and opposed tax increases either by sponsoring key legislation or by casting votes on relevant bills. Some high profile votes include:
Voted NO on the Clinton tax hike in 1993
Voted YES on the capital gains tax cut in 1997
Voted NO on a cigarette tax hike in 1998
Voted YES on repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax in 1999
Voted YES on the 2001 Bush tax cuts
Voted YES to repeal the Death Tax in 2002
Voted YES to the 2003 Bush tax cuts
Voted YES to extend the Bush tax cuts in 2006
”
VOTE SMART conservative ratings:
http://votesmart.org/candidate/evaluations/27054/rick-santorum
Fall 2004 The John Birch Society – Positions 90%
2006 Americans for Prosperity – Positions 67%
2006 The John Birch Society – Positions 34%
2005-2006 Concerned Women for America – Positions 100%
2005 American Conservative Union – Positions 92%
2005 Eagle Forum – Positions 75%
2005 National Journal – Conservative on Economic Policy Score 65%
2005 National Journal – Conservative on Foreign Policy Score 74%
2005 Republican Liberty Caucus – Positions on Personal Liberties 63%
2005 Republican Liberty Caucus – Economic Liberties Score 90%
2005 Republican Liberty Caucus – Positions 76%
2004 American Conservative Union – Positions 96%
2004 Christian Action Network – Lifetime Score 76%
2004 Christian Coalition of America – Positions 100%
2004 Eagle Forum – Positions 100%
2004 National Journal – Conservative on Economic Policy Score 75%
2004 National Journal – Conservative on Social Policy Score 71%
2004 National Journal – Conservative on Foreign Policy Score 60%
2004 Republican Liberty Caucus – Positions 87%
2003-2004 Campaign for Working Families – Positions 100%
2003-2004 Concerned Women for America – Positions 100%
2003 American Conservative Union – Positions 90%
2003 Campaign for Working Families – Positions 100%
2003 Center for Reclaiming America – Positions 100%
2003 Christian Coalition of America – Positions 100%
2003 Concerned Women for America – Positions 100%
2003 Eagle Forum – Positions 87%
2003 National Journal – Conservative on Economic Policy Score 82%
2003 National Journal – Conservative on Social Policy Score 59%
2003 National Journal – Conservative on Foreign Policy Score 78%
2003 National Journal – Composite Conservative Score 87%
2003 Republican Liberty Caucus – Positions on Conservative Issues 80
2003 Republican Liberty Caucus – Positions on Conservative Issues 80
2003 Republican Liberty Caucus – Positions on Conservative Issues 80
2002 American Conservative Union – Positions 95%
2002 Eagle Forum – Positions 64%
2002 Republican Liberty Caucus – Positions on Conservative Issues 95
2002 Republican Liberty Caucus – Positions on Conservative Issues 95
2002 Republican Liberty Caucus – Positions on Conservative Issues 95
2002 The John Birch Society – Positions 74%
2001-2002 Campaign for Working Families – Positions 100%
2001-2002 Concerned Women for America – Positions 100%
2001 American Conservative Union – Positions 100%
2001 Christian Coalition of America – Positions 100%
2001 Republican Liberty Caucus – Positions 90%
2001 The John Birch Society – Positions 90%
2000 American Conservative Union – Positions 100%
2000 Concerned Women for America – Positions 86%
2000 Liberty Lobby – Positions 0%
2000 Republican Liberty Caucus – Positions 83%
2000 The John Birch Society – Positions 73%
1999-2000 Christian Coalition of America – Positions 92%
1999 American Conservative Union – Positions 88%
1999 Liberty Lobby – Positions 80%
1999 The John Birch Society – Positions 70%
1998 American Conservative Union – Positions 84%
1998 The John Birch Society – Positions 65%
1997-1998 Christian Coalition of America – Positions 91%
1997-1998 Concerned Women for America – Positions 75%
1997 American Conservative Union – Positions 84%
1997 Christian Coalition of America – Positions 100%
1997 Liberty Lobby – Positions 30%
1997 The John Birch Society – Positions 63%
1996 American Conservative Union – Positions 95%
1995-1996 Christian Coalition of America – Positions 92%
1995-1996 Concerned Women for America – Positions 75%
1995-1996 The John Birch Society – Positions 68%
Freedoms Truth,
Travis Monitor – http://travismonitor.blogspot.com
Austin, TX